Few, if any, do it better than Keith Kunz.
While Kunz may not have the recognizable mainstream motorsports name to fans like Rick Hendrick, Chip Ganassi, Joe GIbbs or Roger Penske, his presence is felt all the same.
An empire built at the grassroots level, Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) has also become a factory responsible for elevating the development for some of today’s most recognizable stars.
Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, and Tony Stewart are undoubtedly at the top of that list, which also features Rico Abreu, the late Bryan Clauson, Jay Drake, Andy Hillenburg, Buddy Kofoid, the late Jason Leffler, Logan Seavey, and Tanner Thorson, among many others.
In the Chili Bowl Midget Midget Nationals, the most prestigious race in the discipline that celebrates its 40th running this year, Kunz, holds a remarkable eight victories. That number triples if the record books showed how many of the winners he’s been involved with in some capacity.
Mike Hull, Managing Director for Chip Ganassi Racing, is a longtime friend of Kunz - and his business partner Pete Willoughby - and has seen firsthand the craftsmanship.
Kunz's impact
“Keith’s impact is massive,” Mike Hull told Motorsport.com. “I don’t know architecturally where he ranks with driver development, but he created an environment where performance is absolutely visible.
“We were involved with Kyle Larson with Keith. We were involved with Bryan Clauson with Keith. Both of those drivers went on to race for Chip Ganassi Racing as a result of what Keith taught them. He has a counterpart in Pete, who keeps everything ship-shape while Keith gets to do what he does best. That combination in itself has probably framed who Keith Kunz is. I have a great deal of respect for him, as you can tell.”
There still needs to be some element of talent, obviously, but what is that ‘it’ factor that catches the attention of Kunz?
“It’s watching certain guys perform in inferior equipment,” Kunz told Motorsport.com. “You can see the equipment that they’re in, and they’re doing something exceptional. That’s really what it is.
Like with Christopher, we were at Granite City, Illinois, he was in a midget that night when we had Kyle, and he had run our ass off. He wasn’t near the equipment that we had and we just took notice of that. Sometimes you just see somebody, when you’re around it long enough, you just realize, ‘Oh, man. That kid can drive. He just needs a break.’ and you recognize that.”
Kunz has delivered time and time again on providing that opportunity to a promising upstart.
Putting in the work
In some ways, it’s staggering Kunz, whose father worked at a Pillsbury mill in Springfield, Illinois, never ended up on a more recognizable stage. His uncle, Chuck Weyant, made four starts in the Indianapolis 500 (1955, 56-59), and grew up in a family that saw his grandfather, other uncles and cousins all race.
Kunz’s driving career was cut prematurely in around 1986 after getting hurt in a crash, which launched him into building “one good car” with his brother, Rusty, which laid the groundwork for today.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” Kunz said. “Nothing was given to me. I’ve come from basically nothing and had to survive. I didn’t have another job. There was a period in the 90s where I lived off strictly purse money, taking what we needed to live on and then put the rest back in and buying more equipment. Over the years and just building more and more, more equity into the team.
“I couldn’t have done it without my partner, Pete Willoughby, he was in the same boat I was. It was the two of us and we started with $5000 and had some really good supporters.”
With a career that spans more than three decades, Kunz has experienced it all. The early years saw him show up to the Chili Bowl with one car, set up in the back of the pit area of the Tulsa Expo Center. And more recently - last year, in fact - with 16 Toyota-powered entries in what has become his signature pit location behind the grandstands of Turns 3 and 4.
The memories are endless, too.
Every victory has its own special meaning at the Chili Bowl, but winning that first Golden Driller, the event’s iconic trophy, in 1994 set the tone.
“The very first one with Andy Hillenburg was really special because in that era, the early 90s, was when the World of Outlaws were here,” Kunz said. “You know, Steve Kinser, Dave Blaney, Sammy Swindell, Andy, and we won that with Andy. That was big, especially right here since Andy is from Tulsa.”
The other one that came to mind for Kunz happened with Abreu, which sparked a run of five consecutive Chili Bowl victories for his organization (Abreu, 2015-16; Bell, 2017-19)
“And then I would say the first Rico win was huge just because of who Rico is and his fanbase that he has,” Kunz said. “This place went berserk. The second one with Rico was under some weird circumstances, I believe Bryan Clauson was leading it, Rico was running second, and a guy literally fell out of the grandstands off the ledge down onto the concrete. They had to go red flag to go work on this guy. … We had a restart, Rico passes him and wins. Bryan was really good at that time, so for Rico to pull that win off, then the fans started chanting and that was really special.”
There are some outcomes that sting, though, notably coming close but falling short of victory on multiple occasions with Larson and instead watching him go win the event three times (2020-21, ‘25) out on his own.
Through it all, though, Kunz has created something special that Hull puts a heavy emphasis on with finding talented drivers.
“In a midget, there is no escape,” Hull said. “There is no hiding. You have to get it done. And he’s achieved that in midget dirt racing, especially, because the common thread is simple: he’s created an environment where performance is just absolutely visible. At the front of the racing group there, it’s measurable and the result of consequences that he’s created there is head and shoulders above people in any other form of motorsports.
“I would say that his foresight into creating an academy-like atmosphere - that’s a big word that is used today in open-wheel racing, you have to be in a Formula One academy or this academy or that academy. Well, he was an architect of an academy before there were academies, and he’s done it in a pressure dense arena.
“It’s a mental aptitude situation for the driver. The driver has to, under pressure, not make mistakes. Midget racing emphasizes race craft, track management, and that important thing of decision making without mistakes.
“Yeah, midget racing is a great, great area for driver development because in dirt, the track changes every lap, the driver has to read the racetrack, the driver has to chase the grip, and you have to keep your eyes well around the corner.”
In addition to drivers, mechanics have passed through the KKM pipeline and also found opportunities at the next level. For instance, Hull noted that CGR currently has two employees on its roster that previously worked for Kunz, and have occupied more in the past.
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Kunz could have found success in mainstream motorsports on the level of a Hendrick, Ganassi or Penske. While his impact is felt on multiple levels within racing, he’ll leave it to others to figure out where he fits in its history.
“To have been able to just race for a living at grassroots level for more than 30 years now, not a lot of people have been able to do that and we’ve been very fortunate to do so,” Kunz said.
“I think it’s up to the fans to decide where I stand. I’m just proud to have been a part of it.”
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