TULSA, OKLA. (KTUL) — The Chili Bowl Nationals returns to Tulsa for its 38th year.
“It’s just been part of our history of always having the apparel trailer here,” said C. Ray Hall, the president of NCRA Apparel.
A 32-year-long tradition of setting up shop at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
“Most dirt track racing is all summertime events. And so when you have an opportunity to do an event in the middle of the winter, you know, it helps, it certainly helps from a business standpoint,” said Hall.
The shop is called NCRA Apparel, and they travel from Wichita, Kansas every year for this National midget car race.
“It seems to bring more momentum every year,” said Hall.
The event also brings in dollars closer to home.
“We do church retreats. We help younger people go to further education. We do have a driver’s relief fund. So if a driver gets hurt, we do fund some of that. We’ve got some stipulations, but we try to help all we can. And we do a few mission trips also,” said Donnie Crawford about the Donnie Ray Crawford Foundation which is named after his son who died right before he was supposed to compete in the Chili Bowl in 2012.
“A lot of people helped us and did a lot of nice things for us. So we turned it into a foundation to help others instead of keeping the money,” said Crawford.
The Foundation is based in Broken Arrow and comes to the event every year raising money through fundraisers and other means.
“Every dollar that we make, we give right back,” said Jake Rosario, the President of the Donnie Ray Crawford Foundation.
Bryan Hulbert, with the Chili Bowl Nationals, tells NewsChannel 8 that not only does this event help vendors, but also local hotels, restaurants, and parts suppliers.
“This event has an economic impact upwards of 40 million dollars into the Tulsa economy,” said Hulbert.
And he says this year, they’ve had a record number of drivers. He says they had 390 entries.
One of those drivers is Jake Bubak who traveled from Nebraska to be in this race.
“You create such great friends doing it. You travel around all kinds of different tracks and cities and stuff like that throughout the year. You make great friends, and it’s a great time,” said Bubak.