High-water mark
351.4056
career-best overall
97.6% of a perfect 360
Their best day on record: 351.4056 at Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) — 97.6% of a perfect 360.
- Backyard
- Jul 19, 2025
Smoky J's BBQ
Smoky J's BBQ is a competition barbecue team with 9 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2024 and 2026. Their best overall finish is 3rd of 26 at the September Fest (2025). They finished #212 in the 2025 Backyard Series Team of the Year standings.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1529
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 42 invitational or side-series contests not counted
Contests
9
in the data
First seen
Jul 20, 2024
latest May 24, 2026 · 1.8 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
1
3 podiums
Overall top-10s
3
33% of 9 contests
Best top-10 run
3
straight overall top-10s
Avg finish
top 37%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
56%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±12.12
spread of their Backyard overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork Ribs
avg 167.05 · weakest Chicken (164.45)
Road miles
533
across 9 mapped stops · furthest 400 mi
Schedule strength
27%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1537)
Purse competed for
$11K
listed at 7 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 1 state-championship entry
Backyard avg
333.32 / 360
5 Backyard contests · 0 GCs
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)
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Smoky J's BBQ, each with one reason worth a look.
Smoky J's BBQ has 4 rated contests, short of the five a power ranking needs, so its rating is still close to the 1500 every team starts on and 74 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#2,248 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 1
- Top-10s
- 40%
- Peak
- 1529
Their last contest in the data was back in 2023, 3 years before Smoky J's BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#2,258 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1529
Fewer contests behind them than Smoky J's BBQ has cooked, 5 to 9, which makes theirs the less settled rating of the two.
⚔ Compare careers#2,252 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1529
They were already cooking in 2013, 11 years before Smoky J's BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Compare careers#2,256 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 60%
- Peak
- 1539
Level with Smoky J's BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#2,247 of the rated field
- Contests
- 6
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 67%
- Peak
- 1541
Their last contest in the data was back in 2020, 6 years before Smoky J's BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#2,257 of the rated field
- Contests
- 6
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 33%
- Peak
- 1538
Their last contest in the data was back in 2014, 12 years before Smoky J's BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 173.1084 | 154.2400 | 164.45 | top 51% |
| Pork Ribs | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 178.2972 | 150.2056 | 167.05 | top 42% |
“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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 2 | 0 | top 25% |
| Medium (20–39) | 2 | 0 | top 41% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 55% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) | 2 | 3 | 0 | top 44% | Jul 19, 2025 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2026
4 contests
Contests a season
3
across 3 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
MI
4 of 9 contests · 3 states in all
Contests visited
4
1 of them more than once
Most-entered meat
Pork Ribs
8 entries · 1 win · 5 calls
Opponents faced
190
finished ahead 97 times, behind 114
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20261 milestone
20257 milestones
- First category win (Pork Ribs) Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- First overall top-10 Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- First overall podium Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score351.4056 Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- Career-best overall score351.4056 Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- Career-best single call (Pork Ribs)178.2972 Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- Peak power rating (1529) September Fest
20242 milestones
- First tracked contest Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
- First call Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY)
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +13.7 | Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) | Jul 19, 2025 |
| +12.7 | September Fest | Sep 19, 2025 |
| +7.7 | Smokin Downtown (BACKYARD ONLY) | Aug 9, 2025 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -5.1 | Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) | Jul 20, 2024 |
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 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 55% | 91.3% | 91.3% |
| 2025 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 100% | top 21% | 97.6% | 93.9% |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 70% | 90% | 90% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 2026 | 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Master Series Invitational and the Backyard Series Invitational (Sunday, May 24, 2026) unrated Lebanon, TN | 45 / 82 (328.5028) | 42 (165.6800) | 44 (162.8228) | — | — |
| May 22, 2026 | 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: World Rib Finals (Friday, May 22, 2026) unrated Lebanon, TN | — | — | 79 (150.2056) | — | — |
| May 15, 2026 | Rockin' BBQ Warsaw, Indiana (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) Warsaw, IN | — | 15 (169.6916) | — | — | — |
| May 15, 2026 | Rockin' BBQ Warsaw, Indiana (ONE MEAT RIBS) Warsaw, IN | — | — | 31 (163.4172) | — | — |
| Sep 19, 2025 | September Fest 🏅 Coldwater, MI | 3 / 26 (319.3828) | 4 (154.8456) | 2 (164.5372) | — | — |
| Sep 19, 2025 | September Fest (ONE MEAT RIBS) Coldwater, MI | — | — | 4 (173.1316) | — | — |
| Aug 9, 2025 | Smokin Downtown (BACKYARD ONLY) Warsaw, IN | 6 / 18 (343.3944) | 11 (169.1084) | 3 (174.2860) | — | — |
| Jul 19, 2025 | Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) Dowagiac, MI | 3 / 17 (351.4056) | 4 (173.1084) | 1 (178.2972) | — | — |
| Jul 20, 2024 | Dowagiac BBQ Competition and Summer Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) Dowagiac, MI | 16 / 23 (323.9316) | 22 (154.2400) | 7 (169.6916) | — | — |
An unrated contest — an invitational, or a Competitor or Kosher Series board — is in the record but doesn’t move the power rating.