Fans Pack Expo Center For Final Day Of Chili Bowl

The 31st annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals is wrapping up a four-day stint at the Tulsa Expo Center Saturday night.

Racers started their engines and fans flooded the stands for the four-day event.

Fan Mike Stern said, "I like NASCAR, but I'd rather come here sometimes than go to a NASCAR race.”

The 31st annual Chili Bowl is a racing series some refuse to miss.

Marty: "You come here every year?"
Gil White: "Just about, yes sir."
Marty: "Why do you keep coming back?"
White: "It's in your blood. Once you've been here you never want to stop."

Even if that means braving the weather to get here, White said it took him two hours to get to the Chili Bowl.

Racers and spectators come in from all over.

"You get to see a wide variety of different racers from all over the world come in," Stern said.

It's also a place where Broken Arrow grandfather, Jerry Medlock, hopes to pass on a family tradition.

"I used to race, and I want to get them into racing, keep the off the streets and get them into racing," he said.

Medlock grabbed his grandson's Nolan and BJ and made Saturday a boys' night out.

"Left grandma at home and here we are," he said.

At 4 and 2, attentions spans can tend to wonder, but Medlock came prepared.

"We got popcorn, skittles and everything else in this bag," he said.

While they are sad to see the Chili Bowl wind down, they are happy to have made some memories.

"Oh, love it, love it. They love racing," Medlock said.