Keith Kunz revealed that Buddy Kofoid is unlikely to compete in the upcoming Chili Bowl Nationals due to an illness he has come down with after returning stateside from Australia.

In an interview with FloRacing’s Tyler Burnett, Kunz shared, “Buddy went to Australia over the winter, was really good over there. Got home. We we were on the way here and he came down with an illness here in just the last couple of days and he’s too sick to get here.”

Kunz went on to share that it’s unlikely Kofoid will compete in the Chili Bowl Nationals, but he has moved some dates around so if Kofoid is able to recover he will be able to compete later in the week, “We’ve kind of moved some dates around for the guys trying to hope that maybe later in the week he might be able to come. But it just doesn’t look like Buddy’s going to make it this year just to do the illness.”

“We have Ashton Torgerson in the car, just hot lapping it. We’re not replacing Buddy. Some miracle that he shows up later in the week, but it really doesn’t look like it due to an illness that he has,” Kunz reiterated.

However, he did reveal that they did try to replace Buddy, “We’ve called a couple guys. I don’t want to say who, but we’ve called a couple really good guys and it’s just too late to get them here, get them in here, and without no preparation and everything and make it worthwhile. I think we’re going to let Buddy’s car sit here. If we need it or if something happens big, you know, we’ll have an extra car.”

Kofoid has been one of the favorites over the last few years at the Chili Bowl. He finished 6th in the A-Main last year after transferring through the B-Main. In 2024, he finished second behind Logan Seavey, achieving his career-best result in the event.

In 2023 he finished fourth in the A-Main and in 2022 was 7th after winning his Qualifying Night preliminary feature.

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