The preseason Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday night marks the return of NASCAR to the “Mecca of Madhouse” in true vintage fashion as 2025 gets underway. With the non-points exhibition race, the Winston-Salem quarter-mile, known for its rough-and-tumble racing style and many bouts, will host its first Cup Series event since 1971. Alex Bowman, a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, stated, “I think it’s great that the location is changing, and I think it should change every year.” “We are capable of accomplishing it. NASCAR has essentially become all about continuing to develop it and try new things. I am eager to see what the future may bring. From 1979 until 2021, Daytona International Speedway hosted the unofficial start of the new season as the warm-up act to the Daytona 500.
In 2022, NASCAR took a bold move by moving the race across the nation to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a temporary short track that was converted into a football stadium for three seasons. A financial disaster for the sanctioning organization resulted from NASCAR’s unprecedented attempt to fit all on-track activity into a single day due to last year’s rain-impacted Clash. Drivers found it difficult to put together several green-flag laps, which made for cautious and unentertaining crash fests. The racing at the Coliseum was by no means good. In 2025, NASCAR made the decision to stick closer to home and go back to its more basic beginnings. However, the Clash sold out its 17,000 tickets two months ago, and racing purists adore classic Bowman Gray.
The city owns the facility, which was constructed in 1937 as a public works project to create jobs during the Great Depression and is home to the football team of Winston-Salem State University. Wake Forest vs. Duke was the first football game played at the new stadium in 1938. In 1958, Bob Welborn won the inaugural Cup event. Rex White holds the Cup Series record with six victories. The sons of Hall of Famer Glen Wood, who won four times and recorded 29 victories overall across all categories, recall how much fun it was to see their father race at one of NASCAR’s most unpredictable courses. With this weekend’s comeback, Wood Brothers Racing appropriately begins their 75th season of NASCAR competition to Bowman Gray.
Every Saturday night, you sat in the same spot with perhaps a dozen other people. You would get vinegar on your french fries. Peanuts were out of the question. Eddie Wood, a team co-owner, stated, “I wanted some, but they wouldn’t let you because of the (superstitious) peanut thing.” Bowman Gray holds a particular place in my heart. I thought, “Man, that’s the coolest thing ever,” when I first learned that they were even considering racing the Clash in the stadium. “Bowman Gray has a way of bringing out the best or the worst in people,” he added. “You can say whatever you want, but I believe that everyone is very motivated to succeed there.” There is still weekly local racing a fixture at Bowman Gray since NASCAR pulled out of the stadium, and the lower divisions have made the track notorious for the brawls that often ensue after on-track altercations. When NASCAR was asked this week about Bowman Gray’s penchant for fighting, an official said in somewhat jest, “We just ask that (the drivers) do it on the frontstretch” — meaning in view of the spectators.
Who is competing?
Eight of the 39 vehicles that were entered this weekend have prior stock car history at Bowman Gray. Bowman, William Byron, the current Daytona 500 champion, Cole Custer, making his Cup Series comeback, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, and Bubba Wallace are among them. In addition to Bowman Gray weekly regulars Tim Brown and Burt Myers, who both obtained Cup rides for the event, Ryan Preece and Cody Ware have previously competed in modified races at the track.
Brown, who holds the record for Bowman Gray with 101 wins and 12 titles, will be a mechanic for Rick Ware Racing and work on the No. 15 Ford that he will drive. “Now that it’s genuinely happening to fruition it’s mind blowing. Anybody that knows me it’s very seldom that I’m ever speechless, but this has kind of made me speechless,” Brown said. “A lot of the Cup drivers that I’m buddies with were like, ‘Man, I was going to get you to be my driver coach or something,’ so now I don’t even talk with those guys because we want to go run as good as we can and not help those guys out at all.”
What format is it?
The vehicles will be divided into three groups and given two eight-minute practice sessions on Saturday night because the track is too tiny for all 39 to compete at once. After a final four-minute practice session, the cars will be divided into two groups, and the lineups for the heat races will be determined by the best lap. On Saturday night, there will be four heats: three with ten cars and one with nine cars that will last 25 laps.
There will be no overtime, just green-flag laps count, and the top five finishers in each heat move on to the main event on Sunday night. On Sunday, the top two cars will advance to the main, while the remaining 19 cars will participate in a 75-lap race. Out of the 17 vehicles remaining, the driver with the highest points from last season will receive the 23rd and final spot in the main. The main event will be 200 laps with a halftime break at 100 laps, and only green-flag laps count.
Improvements for the occasion
NASCAR has to construct SAFER barriers and strengthen the catch fence in order to get ready for the Cup Series. In addition, NASCAR installed new permanent LED lighting; but, for the two race nights, more temporary lighting will be needed.
