Happy hunting ground
Top 16%
average finish here
Tri-City BBQ Fest is their spot: an average finish in the top 16% across 4 visits.
- 4 visits
- best finish 3rd
- average top 16%
Bar Down BBQ
Bar Down BBQ is a competition barbecue team with 10 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2022 and 2026. Their best overall finish is 3rd of 25 at the Tri City BBQ Fest (2022). They are ranked #4037 of 6,491 teams in the KCBS power rankings. Also listed in KCBS results as “Bar-Down BBQ”.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1483
peak 1526 · rated over 10 contests
Contests
10
in the data
First seen
Sep 16, 2022
latest May 23, 2026 · 3.7 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
4 podiums
Overall top-10s
4
40% of 10 contests
Best top-10 run
2
straight overall top-10s
Avg finish
top 59%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Current form
633.80
last 5 Master vs avg 633.48 (+0.32)
Walk rate
70%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±17.98
spread of their Master overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork
avg 161.89 · weakest Brisket (156.71)
Road miles
7,676
across 10 mapped stops · furthest 1,147 mi
Schedule strength
48%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1562)
Purse competed for
$66K
listed at 6 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 7 state-championship entries
Master avg
633.48 / 720
6 Master contests · 0 GCs
Backyard avg
333.84 / 360
4 Backyard contests · 0 GCs
These overall scores sit on different scales (Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360), so they're kept separate — averaging them together would be misleading.
This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Team of the Year (rank per category by season — the year links to the full board on kcbs.us)
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Master | #772 (145 pts) | #795 (175 pts) | #752 (220 pts) | #667 (225 pts) | #832 (135 pts) |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | #268 (148 pts) | #272 (148 pts) | #208 (233 pts) | — | — |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | #1148 (60 pts) | #1221 (60 pts) | #1293 (60 pts) | #1087 (90 pts) | #1190 (60 pts) |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | #237 (184 pts) | #221 (209 pts) | #275 (149 pts) | — | — |
| 2023 ↗ | Backyard | — | #201 (232 pts) | #218 (182 pts) | — | — |
| 2022 ↗ | Backyard | — | #212 (157 pts) | #182 (207 pts) | — | — |
Overall rank by season
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Bar Down BBQ, each with one reason worth a look.
137 rated teams sit within a point of this rating, so a place on this list means the numbers match — no more than that.
#4,018 of the rated field
- Contests
- 11
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 9%
- Peak
- 1483
0–1 in 1 shared contest (0% to Bar Down BBQ)
One contest in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Bar Down BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head#4,046 of the rated field
- Contests
- 9
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 33%
- Peak
- 1502
0–3 in 3 shared contests (0% to Bar Down BBQ)
Careers of much the same size, 9 contests to 10, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Head-to-head#4,041 of the rated field
- Contests
- 10
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1504
Their last contest in the data was back in 2019, 7 years before Bar Down BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#4,022 of the rated field
- Contests
- 10
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 10%
- Peak
- 1483
This is the highest they've ever been rated, 10 rated contests in — a team sitting at its own career peak.
⚔ Compare careers#4,051 of the rated field
- Contests
- 11
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 18%
- Peak
- 1504
Level with Bar Down BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#4,044 of the rated field
- Contests
- 9
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 22%
- Peak
- 1482
They were already cooking in 2016, 6 years before Bar Down BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Compare careersFamiliar foes (most-met opponents in overall standings — one meeting per contest)
| Opponent | Meetings | Ahead | Behind | Win rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PARROTHEAD SMOKERS | 6 | 2 | 4 | 33% | ⚔ compare |
By meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 10 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 176 | 151.9428 | 161.63 | top 55% |
| Pork Ribs | 10 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 173.1428 | 138.7656 | 160.84 | top 50% |
| Pork | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 176 | 147.9772 | 161.89 | top 71% |
| Brisket | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 168.5372 | 149.6456 | 156.71 | top 83% |
“Calls” = top-10 category finishes (getting called to the stage). Scores here are the final weighted totals KCBS publishes; per-criterion appearance/taste/tenderness marks aren’t in the public results feed.
By field size and state
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 9 | 0 | top 56% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 91% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tri-City BBQ Fest | 4 | 3 | 0 | top 16% | Sep 19, 2025 |
| JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition | 2 | 17 | 0 | top 81% | May 23, 2026 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2025
3 contests
Contests a season
2
across 5 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
IA
4 of 10 contests · 3 states and provinces in all
Contests visited
6
2 of them more than once
Opponents faced
239
finished ahead 129 times, behind 256
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20264 milestones
- Career-best overall score663.2456 10th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam
- Career-best single call (Pork)176 10th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam
- 10th tracked contest JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition
- Most recent contest JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition
20231 milestone
- Peak power rating (1526) Tri City BBQ Fest
20225 milestones
- First tracked contest Tri City BBQ Fest
- First call Tri City BBQ Fest
- First overall top-10 Tri City BBQ Fest
- First overall podium Tri City BBQ Fest
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score334.8000 Tri City BBQ Fest
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +14.9 | Tri City BBQ Fest | Sep 16, 2022 |
| +13.7 | Tri City BBQ Fest | Sep 20, 2024 |
| +11.2 | Tri City BBQ Fest | Sep 15, 2023 |
| +8.6 | Tri-City BBQ Fest | Sep 19, 2025 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -13.6 | 8th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam & Car Show | Jan 4, 2024 |
| -12.2 | 9th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam | Jan 9, 2025 |
| -11.8 | Jack 9 Memorial | May 25, 2024 |
| -10.9 | 10th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam | Jan 9, 2026 |
| -10.1 | JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition | May 23, 2026 |
Scores over time (% of a perfect score — tap a meat to add it)
Overall finish over time (top-% of field, lower is better)
Where they finish (overall)
Best vs average (by meat)
How entries end (by meat)
Season by season
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 89% | 92.1% | 91.2% |
| 2025 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 67% | top 64% | 89.7% | 87.4% |
| 2024 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 33% | top 65% | 93% | 88.6% |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 16% | 95.2% | 95.2% |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 12% | 93% | 93% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 2026 | JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition La Salette, ON | 17 / 20 (650.7312) | 11 (167.9656) | 6 (171.4172) | 18 (157.1312) | 19 (154.2172) |
| Jan 9, 2026 | 10th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam 🏅 St. Augustine, FL | 35 / 38 (663.2456) | 37 (161.6456) | 37 (157.0628) | 9 (176) | 25 (168.5372) |
| Sep 19, 2025 | Tri-City BBQ Fest 🏅 Denison, IA | 6 / 26 (322.8344) | 6 (152.5372) | 2 (170.2972) | — | — |
| May 24, 2025 | Jack9 Memorial BBQ Competition La Salette, ON | 20 / 26 (623.9200) | 13 (162.8800) | 10 (163.4172) | 25 (147.9772) | 23 (149.6456) |
| Jan 9, 2025 | 9th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam 🏅 Elkton, FL | 35 / 38 (618.6512) | 37 (152.5256) | 38 (138.7656) | 19 (169.6800) | 33 (157.6800) |
| Sep 20, 2024 | Tri City BBQ Fest 🏅 Denison, IA | 4 / 30 (334.8344) | 3 (172.5600) | 6 (162.2744) | — | — |
| May 25, 2024 | Jack 9 Memorial La Salette, ON | 18 / 20 (612.4348) | 19 (156.5484) | 20 (143.9888) | 19 (153.6688) | 13 (158.2288) |
| Jan 4, 2024 | 8th Annual Jimmy Jam BBQ Slam & Car Show 🏅 Elkton, FL | 39 / 43 (631.8972) | 43 (151.9428) | 37 (161.1428) | 30 (166.8572) | 42 (151.9544) |
| Sep 15, 2023 | Tri City BBQ Fest 🏅 Denison, IA | 5 / 32 (342.8800) | 2 (176) | 4 (166.8800) | — | — |
| Sep 16, 2022 | Tri City BBQ Fest 🏅 Denison, IA | 3 / 25 (334.8000) | 5 (161.6572) | 3 (173.1428) | — | — |