NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell has experienced a love-hate relationship with the Tulsa Expo Center since his first Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout start in 2011. He’s enjoyed some of the most glorious moments of his racing career, as well his fair share of heartbreakers.

Next week, Bell will return to the building hoping to make more memories and add at least one more Tulsa Shootout win to his resume.  

“The Shootout is always a ton of fun,” Bell said in an interview with FloRacing. “I ran that race growing up. It’s cool to be able to go there and run the wing divisions and the non-wing divisions. I’ve ran second a lot and I think I’ve only won one, so maybe we can change that this year.” 

Bell, a three-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner, has one career Tulsa Shootout victory on his resume. His lone Shootout win came in 2017 when he won the A-Main for the Winged Outlaw division.  

Despite his success under the roof of the Tulsa Expo Center, he's quick to remember those he didn’t win as well. He has four second-place finishes at the Tulsa Shootout, one of which came in last year’s Stock Non-Wing main event.  

Between the Tulsa Shootout and Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, Bell attempted 15 main events at the Tulsa Expo Center before capturing his first Golden Driller trophy. And that trophy came in the 2017 Chili Bowl Nationals. It wasn’t until a year later that he secured his first Tulsa Shootout trophy.  

“I didn’t win the Shootout until 2018. I definitely had a lot of attempts before I was able to get one of those golden trophies,” he said. “I think I won a couple Chili Bowls before the Shootout. The Tulsa Expo Center is a place that I definitely have a love-hate relationship with. Whenever you win that sucker, you don’t want to leave. When you don’t win it, you can’t get out of there fast enough.” 

VIDEO: FloRacing visited Christopher Bell's Micro Sprint shop prior to the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout. 

When it comes to the Tulsa Shootout, Bell wants to win. However, he also knows that competing on the track and gaining knowledge prior to the Chili Bowl Nationals can pay dividends.  

“It’s a place where there’s no home track advantage,” Bell said. “The track lives for a couple months a year and has two races: the Shootout and the Chili Bowl. I believe the first year I won the Chili Bowl I ran the Shootout before and the years prior to that I hadn’t been running the Shootout. 

“Going there and running the Micros, learning the track layout again, learning how the berm effects the cars. The track construction is very similar each year but each year it has its little nuances. You can go there for the Shootout and say it’s a little slicker this year or the cushion isn’t building up as much or it has been building up more and stuff like that.” 

Regardless of how much experience you have, the competition level at the Tulsa Shootout will be fierce. This year, a record-breaking number of entries were submitted for the “Mecca of Micros.”  

In order to be successful, a driver needs to be good and have a little bit of luck on their side.  

“At the Shootout, you’re literally pointing against all 300 competitors through your heat race and your qualifiers,” Bell stated. “There’s something about Friday night when you look online and see the top 16 lock-ins out of 300 and you’re one of them; it’s a pretty cool feeling. It takes a lot of luck for sure because if you draw the front of the heat race it’s almost impossible to score enough points to lock yourself in. You’ve got to get a good pill draw, which makes it just that much harder to win.” 

The 37th running of the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout begins Wednesday, December 29 with three days of preliminary action setting the stage for main events on Saturday, January 1. All four days of racing will be streamed live exclusively on FloRacing.  

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