2026 Chili Bowl: Expo Chaos, History Made

The Expo was unhinged all week — elbows out, sliders launched from the parking lot, and absolutely zero mercy on the cushion.

A record-breaking 387 competitors stormed Tulsa chasing the coveted Golden Driller, with Tony Stewart serving as Grand Marshal — the perfect accelerant for a week already primed to erupt.

Chili Bowl returned to honoring Donnie Ray Crawford with a 55-lap Feature, raising the emotion and intensity inside the Expo.

The 24 best-qualified cars rolled out for the Feature — four of them SpeedLab entries from Kevin Swindell.

Only 16 finished.

8 didn’t.

Most heartbreaking? Jett Barnes — the 14-year-old who didn’t even know what a press conference was, yet drove like a veteran and had the entire building buzzing.

And then there was our Alphabet Soup HEROES. Darin Naida — the OG Soup Eater, going on a record-setting Alphabet tear that turned the Expo into his personal battleground. The Soup Run that included NINE Features. Mack Leopard didn’t just move forward—he evicted 73 cars from his path on his full-blown rampage.

Emerson Axsom strapped into Swindell’s SpeedLab weapon and walked out with his first Golden Driller.

Kevin? Number Seven. A dynasty tightening its grip.

Norman Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell wrapped up his first Chili Bowl as an owner and wrencher with a gritty 9th-place finish, showing he can build fast just as well as he can drive fast.

The racing? Tight. Violent. Beautiful in only the way Chili Bowl chaos can be.

Favorites folded. Nobodies rose. The Expo took its annual blood-pressure donation.

Kyle Larson, favored to defend, had his week detonated after flipping over a stalling C.J. Leary.

KTJ went full berserker, Hard Charging +16 to land second.

Oklahoma’s own Hank Davis sealed the podium and sent the home-state crowd into orbit.

Axsom sliced the field like he owned it. Swindell called it.

The combo shredded the week… then Saturday night.

New star crowned. Legacy extended. Expo shook.

High Speed Dirt Media flavor?

All over it.