TULSA, Okla. – This year’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals at Tulsa Expo Raceway features a talented class of rookie competitors each hoping to write their own page of history at the annual midget classic.

Seventy different first-time Chili Bowl participants, from national winners to relative unknowns, are among a field of nearly 360 entries trying to punch their tickets into Saturday’s 55-lap finale.

The Chili Bowl rookie class is led by three drivers who made waves across the country last year, building their resumes in both USAC National Midget Series and POWRi National Midget League competition.

Clauson-Marshall Racing boasts two of the trio in their stable, with standout young gun Zeb Wise being joined by team newcomer Andrew Layser as both tackle the Tulsa clay for the first time at the Chili Bowl.

Wise has waited two years to make his debut in the Super Bowl of Midget Racing, and it’s a moment he both relishes and doesn’t take lightly.

“It’s pretty special to be here and to walk in for the first time with a driver’s bag in your hands,” said Wise. “Anytime you’re going for a rookie-of-the-year award it is tough competition, but here it always seems like it’s even tougher than most normal situations. There’s 19 rookies running on Monday alone.

“It’s completely different walking in here as a racer at the Chili Bowl compared to the Tulsa Shootout,” Wise added. “It’s different in every way. The track is a little different, the trailers are parked different, the cars are lined up different … it’s just a unique atmosphere and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Meanwhile, Layser plans to soak in the experience and lean on his teammates, even if he is fighting one of them to be the Chili Bowl’s top rookie.

“It’s pretty cool to be a rookie here and to be able to race with a great organization like Clauson-Marshall is pretty special,” Layser noted. “I know I’ll be in good hands all week. I don’t feel like there’s any pressure; I’m just going to go out, take it one race at a time, rely on my teammates and see what I can do on the race track. That’s really all that any of us can do.

“It’ll be cool to be dicing with Zeb for it. There’s a lot of good rookies this year. Hopefully we can be just a tiny bit better in the end.”

On the opposite side of the aisle, Tanner Carrick represents one of Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports’ rookie contenders this season, and the California teenager is ready to contend.

After being three days too young to compete in the 2018 Chili Bowl, Carrick went out and won the USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year Award, as well as tallied two national midget victories during the season on top of that.

Now, Carrick pursues his second rookie recognition in less than three months, hoping to add to the Kunz team’s legacy inside the Tulsa Expo Center.

“I’m really excited going into this, especially knowing that I got a couple of POWRi wins last year,” said Carrick. “It gives me a bit of a comfort level and some confidence knowing that I can do this. In practice, the track was hammer-down around the bottom, but you never know what you can get here.

“It’s a pretty big deal to be here,” he added. “I just want to put on a good show and make some noise.”

Aside from those three names, Karsyn Elledge – the granddaughter of Dale Earnhardt and niece of Dale Earnhardt Jr. – enters her first Chili Bowl this year with Tucker-Boat Motorsports and Pennsylvania’s Kyle Craker suits up for Petry Motorsports as two more of the young guns in the Toyota fleet.

Both drivers plan to focus on the things they can control as they go about their respective weeks.

“Regardless of how you do through the week, just to roll down that ramp and onto the race track is a huge moment for all of us here,” said Elledge. “I’m excited to see it from the driver’s view this year after being a spectator for the last few years and just want to run the best race that I can.”

“This event is definitely intimidating and overwhelming at times, but you just have to make the most of it and not take anything for granted … because it could end up being a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” added Craker.

Then there’s IndyCar Series driver Conor Daly, who has a simple goal for Saturday’s alphabet soup.

“I just don’t want to be in the last lettered main,” Daly joked. “I want to at least be one main up.”

Other notables in the 2019 Chili Bowl rookie class include NASCAR Cup Series regular Landon Cassill and open-wheel drivers Cannon McIntosh, Kyle Cummins, A.J. Flick, Howard Moore and Carson Short.