The Cup Series’ return to Bowman Gray Stadium on February 2 will be the most recent indication from NASCAR that it is still mindful of its heritage even as it considers international development. This year, NASCAR is moving its preseason Clash exhibition race to Bowman Gray, the flat quarter-mile oval track that encircles the football field of Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, after it was held on the football field of the Los Angeles Memorial Colseum for the previous three years. Although it hasn’t had a Cup Series race in 54 years, the charming venue has continued to organize boisterous, full-contact grassroots races within its constrained space in recent decades. It was constructed in 1937.
The Cook Out Clash, which airs on Fox this evening at 8 p.m. ET, is sponsored by the Cook Out fast service restaurant business, which is based in North Carolina. An estimated 15,000 people are anticipated to attend the event, filling all 6,000 parking spaces surrounding the site and necessitating the utilization of numerous shuttle buses and other modes of transportation to bring supporters in and out. Every season is significant for a sports league, but for NASCAR, the Clash marks the beginning of an especially noteworthy 2025 as the organization enters into new charter agreements with its teams and new television rights agreements with five domestic corporations. “The NASCAR Cup Series is returning, and everyone who worked on this event across all the different departments at NASCAR is just really proud to bring the NASCAR Cup Series to Bowman Gray and the city of Winston-Salem for the first time in 54 years,” said Joey Dennewitz, managing director of NASCAR regional, who helped set up the race alongside project lead Justin Swilling.
“Bowman Gray Stadium is a unique venue, as anyone who has attended a race knows, and bringing that excitement to Cup Series fans worldwide is a fantastic opportunity to highlight NASCAR’s history.” There are no grandstand seats left for that Sunday of the race weekend, but there are a few premium hospitality tickets left. There are still a few grandstand seats available for the modified-division race and practice and qualifying that NASCAR will hold on Saturday, February 1. It has had to figure out how to fit its operations into a space that is less than 25% of the configuration of Martinsville Speedway, the smallest racetrack that NASCAR usually visits for its premier series. Among the modifications were the removal of outdated guardrails and installing SAFER barriers around the circumference of the track to soften the impact of any crashes.
Musco Lighting, a company based in Iowa, installed a new lighting system at the racetrack as well. In a nearby fieldhouse, NASCAR is erecting a makeshift media center that can accommodate roughly 60 people. Fiber-optic cable was also deployed by NASCAR for the Fox telecast. In addition to the difficulties posed by the compact layout, Dennewitz pointed out that NASCAR had a limited amount of time to prepare everything. He remarked, “It is nothing short of a miracle that we decided to do this less than nine months ago, and that all of these departments are working together internally to make sure that we’re ready to drop the green flag on Fox on February 2 when the Musco lights are at their brightest.”
