Swing and a long drive, deep left field … back, back, back … GONE! 

To borrow a baseball analogy, John Shirey II of Chunky BBQ hit the ultimate open-fire walk-off over the weekend at Kansas Speedway. Shirey and wife Stephanie won the 44th annual American Royal World Series of BBQ Open Grand Championship - a field of 444 teams from around the globe. Not only was it a major championship, it vaulted the Hershey, Pennsylvania team to KCBS Team of the Year honors by one point over 2023 champ Janky Leg BBQ. What a feat it was and on Episode 284 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with John about the thrill, the nerves, the aftermath, the exhaustion and what’s next for Chunky BBQ in 2025.

We also review our American Royal weekend where the Tailgate Guys competition team got to take a treasured walk for the third time in four years, this time with an 8th-place in baked beans. Some of our other scores also were pretty darned respectable as well (and some weren’t) to cap a trip that had its challenges from a blown trailer tire en route to heavy rain on cook morning. A special shout-out to our friend Marty "Sign Man" Prather for supporting our Royal journey.

Charlie Wallace of The Grill Guys of Missouri stops by for a rundown of their venture into competition at Wingapalooza in downtown Springfield, where they took home some hardware. 

Thanks to all our sponsors and marketing partners for making the show possible: 
Blues Hog #blueshognation
Royal Oak Charcoal #TeamRoyalOak2024 #charcoalofchampions
The Butcher Shoppe #alwayshandpicked 
Proud Souls BBQ Kansas City #proudsoulsbbqkc #kingdomofq 
The Grill Guys of Missouri #grillguys417
Smoke ’n Magic BBQ #SmokenMagic
Vietti Marketing Group  
Marty "Real Sign Man" Prather #pizza

Have a great BBQ week! #SmokeEmIfYouGotEm