Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott topped the leaderboard in a combined practice and qualifying session on Saturday ahead of Sunday night’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium (8 ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet set the pace at 63.762 mph over Chris Buescher (63.622 mph), Denny Hamlin (63.600 mph) and Tyler Reddick (63.546 mph).
Those four drivers started on the pole in their respective 25-lap heat races later in the evening at the “Madhouse.”
Brad Keselowski (63.515 mph) rounded out the top five.
Chase Briscoe (63.501 mph), Christopher Bell (63.407 mph), Joey Logano (63.407 mph), Ryan Blaney (63.313 mph) and Shane van Gisbergen (63.305 mph) completed the top 10.
In this practice session, the field was broken up into separate groups and each group got to take the track three times. In each driver’s third and final time on track, their fastest lap time determined the starting lineup for the heat races.
Ty Gibbs set the quickest overall time at 64.199 mph in Group 1 of practice but ended up 24th fastest (62.994 mph) after 39 drivers set a qualifying time in the final practice session.
It’s time to kick off a new NASCAR season with the annual Cook Out Clash on Feb. 2 (8 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — but in a new location. After running the Cup Series’ preseason exhibition at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for three years, the race shifts to a new venue in historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Here’s how it works: The field of 39 entrants are split into three practice groups Saturday, with each group receiving three sessions. The final practice session also serves as qualifying, with each driver’s fastest lap determining the heat race lineups in order of speed. Each heat race is 25 laps (only counting green flag laps and no overtime), with the top five in each locking into Sunday’s main event.
Those who don’t transfer into the main event from the heat races will compete in Sunday’s Last Chance Qualifier Race, spanning 75 laps. The top two finishers will then tag the back of the field for the 200-lap feature. The 23rd and final spot in the Clash is reserved for the driver who finished the highest in the final standings from the 2024 season and didn’t race into the main event.
Follow along below for updated lineups and results for all of this weekend’s on-track action, including the heat races, last chance qualifier and the main event.
Editor’s note: Saturday’s practices and heat races air on FS1. Sunday’s Last Chance Qualifier and Cook Out Clash air on FOX.
The season-opening Cook Out Clash exhibition race will star 23 drivers in a 200-lap feature event on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — and, like previous iterations, will have a unique qualifying method to make the field.
The tight confines of the 0.25-mile Bowman Gray oval set up for an event similar to that hosted by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 through 2024.
The weekend’s on-track action begins Feb. 1 with live practice sessions on FS1 (6:10 p.m. ET). The entrants will be split into three practice groups, with each group getting three practice sessions. Each competitor’s fastest lap from their final practice session will determine the starting lineup for all of four 25-lap heat races. The practice groups are assigned based on 2024 owner points, starting with Joey Logano in Group 3 and moving across to William Byron in Group 1, then Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and so on.
PRACTICE GROUPS
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
William Byron
Ryan Blaney
Joey Logano
Kyle Larson
Christopher Bell
Tyler Reddick
Alex Bowman
Denny Hamlin
Chase Elliott
Daniel Suárez
Austin Cindric
Chase Briscoe
Ty Gibbs
Shane van Gisbergen
Brad Keselowski
Bubba Wallace
Chris Buescher
Josh Berry
Carson Hocevar
Kyle Busch
Ross Chastain
Riley Herbst
Todd Gilliland
Zane Smith
Noah Gragson
Cole Custer
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ty Dillon
Erik Jones
AJ Allmendinger
Austin Dillon
Justin Haley
Michael McDowell
Ryan Preece
John Hunter Nemechek
Cody Ware
Tim Brown
Burt Myers
Garrett Smithley
FINAL PRACTICE/QUALIFYING GROUPS
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Carson Hocevar (1A)
Kyle Busch (2A)
Ross Chastain (3A)
Riley Herbst (1A)
Todd Gilliland (2A)
Zane Smith (3A)
Noah Gragson (1A)
Cole Custer (2A)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3A)
Ty Dillon (1A)
Erik Jones (2A)
AJ Allmendinger (3A)
Austin Dillon (1A)
Justin Haley (2A)
Michael McDowell (3A)
Ryan Preece (1A)
John Hunter Nemechek (2A)
Cody Ware (3A)
Tim Brown (1A)
Burt Myers (2A)
Garrett Smithley (3A)
William Byron (1B)
Ryan Blaney (2B)
Joey Logano (3B)
Kyle Larson (1B)
Christopher Bell (2B)
Tyler Reddick (3B)
Alex Bowman (1B)
Denny Hamlin (2B)
Chase Elliott (3B)
Daniel Suárez (1B)
Austin Cindric (2B)
Chase Briscoe (3B)
Ty Gibbs (1B)
Shane van Gisbergen (2B)
Brad Keselowski (3B)
Bubba Wallace (1B)
Chris Buescher (2B)
Josh Berry (3B)
The final practice sessions will be a bit different, acting as a qualifying session that will determine the grid for each heat race. Each group will stage in the pit area and then split into two smaller groups of 6-7 cars. From there, the A and B groups will each get 4 minutes to set a fast time.
The overall fastest driver in final practice will start from pole position in Heat 1; the second-fastest driver will start from the pole in Heat 2; the third-fastest driver will start from the pole in Heat 3, and so on. Only green-flag laps will count in each heat with no overtime in play. The top five finishers in each heat will advance to Sunday night’s feature event.
Those who do not advance will have one more chance to advance courtesy of a 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier, or LCQ, on Sunday afternoon. Like the heat races, only green-flag laps will count toward the lap total with no overtime in play. The top two finishers in the LCQ will advance to the feature race, where they will start 21st and 22nd, respectively. The 23rd and final starting position in the Clash will be awarded to the driver who finished highest in the 2024 driver points standings who did not already transfer into the main event.
Sunday night’s 200-lap feature starting lineup will be set by the results of the heat races. Heat 1’s winner will start on pole for the main event while Heat 2’s victor will start second in the feature. A timed break will be observed at the race’s halfway point at Lap 100. Like the preliminary events, only green-flag laps will count and the event must finish under the green flag.
The 2025 Cook Out Clash marks the Cup Series’ first return to the historic Bowman Gray Stadium since 1971, when Bobby Allison scored the victory in the last of 29 points-paying races at the quarter-mile venue in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Editor’s Note: This marks the second story in a three-part series as Spire Motorsports allows NASCAR Digital Media to cover its preparation for the 2025 Daytona 500.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Rodney Childers walks the shop floor at Spire Motorsports feeling invigorated. There’s a rekindled spark in his eye.
The hallways he strolls today are starkly different than those he patrolled 12 weeks ago at Stewart-Haas Racing. When he walked into SHR in the fall of 2013, the organization had already won 20 NASCAR Cup Series races, among them a Brickyard 400 and a Cup championship.
Pacing the pristine white floors of Spire, Childers joins a team that has just one Cup victory to its name, courtesy of Justin Haley in 2019. And yet, to Childers, the echoes of those SHR memories aren’t quite so distant. There’s a striking familiarity, in fact, that he could be building his next title contender in Mooresville, some 18 miles north of the Kannapolis shop in which he forged himself into a Hall-of-Fame-caliber crew chief. He joins Haley and the No. 7 Chevrolet team at Spire for the 2025 Cup campaign.
“It feels more like SHR in the beginning, honestly, not the end — which is a good thing,” Childers said Wednesday.
Coming from the guy who led Harvick to a Cup Series championship in their first year together at SHR, perhaps the series should enter on high alert.
At his previous place of employment, Rodney Childers built a championship-winning team from the ground up as a crew chief. With a legendary driver behind the wheel in Kevin Harvick, Childers established himself as Hall-worthy with an astounding 37 wins at Stewart-Haas Racing over a record-setting decade in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Those were the good days — the great days — that became the standard for his way of operating. Today, Childers stands before the 2025 season winless across the past two seasons, dating back to Harvick’s final celebration in August 2022. An internal downturn and eventual closing of the doors at Stewart-Haas Racing dimmed both the success and the fun from Childers’ run in the sun until the doors shut in November.
That’s where the people at Spire have made their impact already. Childers is surrounded by a group of racers with optimism and experience, all looking forward at what opportunities lie ahead as part of what could be a bright future.
“You can stand here on a 7 o’clock meeting in the mornings and you look around the room, and it’s all A-plus people,” Childers said. “There’s not C people standing around, and that’s really hard to come across right now. It’s hard to find good help. It’s hard to find good engineers and good mechanics in every single position. And here, I haven’t come across anybody that’s not an A-plus guy or A-plus woman.”
Sitting on a grand stage centered along the wall in Spire Motorsports’ lobby as the team hosts a well-attended media day event, Childers estimates 18 people from Stewart-Haas made the pilgrimage to Spire for the 2025 season. Of those 18, one of the most important was Robert “Cheddar” Smith, who follows Childers as his car chief after 11 years serving the same role on the SHR No. 4 car. Former lead engineer Dax Gerringer now serves as Spire’s technical director. But the new journey isn’t about Spire becoming SHR Lite — though with just one win to its name, Spire would love to chip into SHR’s 70-win total. It’s about utilizing everyone’s strength at an organization that took tangible steps forward in 2024.
“How do we become better teammates with each other? How do we work together better?” Childers said. “There’s just so many sides of it. And right now, we’re extremely fortunate for what we have. I can’t wait to go racing.”
NOT-SO-SECRET WEAPON
Championship experience is not something deeply engrained in Spire Motorsports’ pre-existing fiber. That is no slight on a still-blooming organization and instead the reality of the runway that remains ahead of it.
Childers, on the other hand, carries that pedigree with him wherever he goes. His expectation to win is part of what separates him from those who merely want to.
The level of preparation that comes with that is new for Haley, who returns to the No. 7 Chevrolet in 2025 after a reacquainting appetizer of seven races in 2024.
“I’ve quickly realized what Cup racing is through Rodney and Cheddar, and nothing is ever good enough for them,” Haley said Wednesday. “And that’s been refreshing to me, that there’s nothing overlooked, no stone unturned. If you need something done, it is done five minutes ago. It’s truly been incredible to go through the process of the offseason with the two of them, and then Matt McCall, Ryan Sparks, and obviously (Michael) McDowell and Travis (Peterson) as well.
“I guess I didn’t quite understand what level they were racing on. I feel like I was living on a different planet, honestly. And that’s nothing against where I’ve been. It’s just to compete at a high level and win races like Rodney, Cheddar, all those people have done, it requires something else.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
For example, Haley’s seat position in prior Cup cars was set in such a way that his core and spine were negatively impacted, leaving his tailbone incredibly uncomfortable after races. Childers prioritized recalibrating that position so that Haley sits as comfortably as possible moving forward and can simply focus on driving.
What comes with someone with Childers’ caliber is the desire of others to be a part of what he builds. Mechanics, engineers and other crewmen know the expectation that pairs with working for Childers. They want to be part of that journey.
“It’s the people that Rodney brought with him too and the people that were already here that have been here since the inception of Spire Motorsports that have lived every moment of it,” Haley told NASCAR.com. “So yeah, Rodney obviously is a huge plus to us — having him and having that confidence, knowing that he’s going to take care of it. I think that’s what’s given me a lot of confidence, too, is there’s nothing that I can ask that’s too much for them that they aren’t going to take care of. It’s just been refreshing it’s honestly. Just been a whole change of lifestyle.”
Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire, has seen that injection of life from Childers, McCall, McDowell and Peterson firsthand — but in a way that has been complementary rather than earth-shattering.
“I think it’s been more additive,” Dickerson said. “What I really appreciate about those guys is that when they got here, they didn’t look at us as a problem that needed to be solved. They weren’t coming in being like, ‘Look at these idiots. We gotta fix this and fix that.’ They’ve really just come in with an additive kind of tone where it’s like, ‘Hey, you guys are already have done this. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. How do I just take you to another step?’
“Certainly, when somebody like Rodney Childers talks, he has the legitimacy of all those wins and championships that you listen, right? So I mean, he carries a lot of weight.”
SEEKING DAYTONA GLORY
Childers has accomplished plenty in his career — two Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis, two Southern 500s at Darlington, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte among them.
Notably absent from that list of crown jewels, though, is the Daytona 500.
“It just kind of hangs over my head every year,” Childers told NASCAR.com.
Many of the sport’s greats never get to experience Daytona’s most glorious victory. Mark Martin’s decades of unsatisfied journeys remain prominent in Childers’ mind, as does Dale Earnhardt’s 20-year wait.
“We’ve always been in contention,” Childers said. “We’ve been leading on the last maybe two laps or last lap. I mean, counting all the speedways, it’s 10 times we’ve been leading on the last lap. And then it just doesn’t work out.”
There is a budding optimism for Daytona that runs parallel to his season-long hopes. Childers felt the No. 4 car he prepared for Josh Berry in the August 2024 Daytona race was the best vehicle in show until it crashed from the lead late. This year, he also brings on lead engineer Jonathan Branzelle, who previously served as McCall’s engineer on the No. 6 RFK Racing entry with Brad Keselowski — another superspeedway powerhouse.
“I think we have a lot going for us,” Childers said. “In reality, I think Justin might be the best speedway racer we’ve ever went to a speedway race with. So I think that’ll be key for all of us to go down there and perform well.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
On Jan. 29, just two weeks before cars will unload at Daytona for a 10 a.m. ET practice session, the shell of the No. 7 Chevrolet that Haley will pilot sits unwrapped on jack stands. This is an improvement, however, from the last check-in, when Daytona cars were yet to be clipped together. The chassis are built, body panels installed, but no engines yet in place.
Still, there remains no anxiety of running behind schedule. All is on track for the three-car operation, and Childers has no worries.
“To be honest, I felt like at Stewart-Haas, we pushed that too far out all the time,” Childers said. “They wanted to start building the Daytona cars two months before and then they would just sit around. It was different over there too because we had like a speedway guy that, kind of like (Jimmy) Fennig does at Roush is like, you know, if you had somebody to sit there and just baby them to death, then yeah, maybe start building them earlier. But right now, we don’t really have that person.
“But, yeah, they’re in good shape. I feel like they’re coming together well. They look nice, down to just the detail stuff. If you were to open the hood on one of them six months ago compared to now, it looks way nicer. So everybody’s doing a really good job with all of it and feel good about it.”
What’s next is performing immediately when the car rolls onto the race track.
“Going to the Daytona 500 is really what matters,” Childers said. “We want to go down there and qualify well. We want to race well in the duels and then have a shot at it in the 500.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A perfect depiction of how far Ford’s ingenuity and innovation stretches can be seen in its car lineup at Ford Performance’s 2025 season launch party in Charlotte.
An array of race-worn vehicles — and a few stock — that have competed in vast motorsports disciplines across the globe sit on opposite sides of the event hall. From the Mustang GT3 right off the heels of winning the GTD Pro class in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona to the hulking Broncos and Raptors built for podiums in off-road racing. It was a sturdy stable of decorated Blue Ovals all gathered for one night only.
Last year, Ford competed in 28 countries using 16 unique vehicles, winning 81 races. Proving NASCAR isn’t the only racing series where Ford is setting its sights high in 2025, Ford Performance’s DNA runs deep in every motorsports facet. From drag racing, drifting and off-road challenges to making its return as an engine supplier with Red Bull’s Formula One team, Ford continues to expand its international brand. NASCAR, however, remains one of its flagships, with a collection of historic, title-winning teams under the manufacturer’s banner.
Ford’s rich NASCAR legacy, spanning from the early days with Wood Brothers Racing to its modern-era dominance with Team Penske, was vividly showcased at the event, with the Bill France Cup and Craftsman Truck Series trophies proudly welcoming guests.
While Chevrolet has had a stronghold on the manufacturers’ championships the last four seasons, Team Penske’s Fords have come up clutch and wheeled in the Cup crown the last three campaigns. Ford Performance isn’t just diversifying into different motorsports for the thrill — it’s fully committed to the pursuit of victory and championships wherever the green flag waves.
Another highlight was the honor bestowed upon the Wood Brothers Racing team as they gear up for its 75th season in Cup. Wood Brothers have been synonymous with Ford since the very beginning of its journey, marking an extraordinary partnership that has yielded 100 victories. The team’s dedication to Ford, spanning multiple generations, underscores the deep bond between the brand and one of the sport’s most respected teams.
Tucked to the side in one row, you could see the striking evolution of how far Ford has grown in the Cup Series with David Pearson’s 1972 Mercury Cyclone sitting next to a freshly wrapped version of Chris Buescher’s 2025 Mustang Dark Horse. The cutting-edge design of the Dark Horse contrasted sharply with the classic charm of Pearson’s Cyclone, offering a visual narrative of Ford’s progress and commitment to success in NASCAR, past, present and future.
The 2025 launch event wasn’t just a celebration of Ford’s past accomplishments but a clear signal of the brand’s ambitious plans for the future — including an LMDh entry to compete in the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship and fight for the overall win in the 24 hours of Le Mans. As technology evolves and new challenges emerge, Ford is setting the bar even higher for the entire motorsports industry. Whether it’s the relentless pursuit of speed in NASCAR or expanding its global footprint in Formula One and beyond, Ford Performance is poised to continue its legacy.
As the 2025 NASCAR season kicks off, Ford’s commitment to performance and tradition remains unwavering, and the Blue Oval is more entrenched than ever in the sport’s fabric, supporting some of the most competitive and successful teams on the grid.
NASCAR’s new seven-year media rights agreement for the NASCAR Cup Series begins in 2025 with four best-in-class distribution partners — FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon’s Prime Video and TNT Sports, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. Those four broadcast partners will deliver live coverage of all 38 NASCAR Cup Series races.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how to watch NASCAR in 2025, with more information on each broadcast partner below.
FOX Sports will carry 14 Cup Series races, starting with the Cook Out Clash (Feb. 2) and running through the NASCAR All-Star Race (May 18). Five of those races will air on FOX — the Cook Out Clash, Daytona 500, Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Talladega. The remaining races during this portion will air on FS1.
Additionally, practice and qualifying for the Cook Out Clash, the Daytona 500 and the All-Star Race events will air on the FOX network.
FOX Sports also will carry the entire NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
Prime Video will exclusively stream five NASCAR Cup Series races as part of the streaming service’s first foray into live motorsports, picking up after the FOX portion of the broadcast season concludes. The five races streaming on Prime Video are the Coca-Cola 600, Nashville, Michigan, the first Cup Series race at Mexico City and Pocono (June 22).
Prime Video will also offer exclusive coverage of practice and qualifying for the first half of the NASCAR Cup Series season through Pocono (excluding The Clash, Daytona 500 and All-Star races, which air on FOX Sports).
TNT Sports will offer Cup Series content across multiple platforms. The network will air five Cup Series races, following Prime Video’s portion of the Cup Series schedule. The five races are Atlanta, Chicago Street Race, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis (July 27). Races on TNT Sports also will stream live on the B/R Sports Add-On on Max.
All second-half practice and qualifying events will be simulcast on Max and truTV, beginning with Atlanta (June 28).
Additionally, Max will be the exclusive home of NASCAR Driver Cam, which is live in-car cameras across the Cup Series field.
NBC Sports will air the final 14 races of the season, starting with Iowa and culminating with the Cup Series championship race at Phoenix (Nov. 2). This multi-platform agreement will feature a mix of races and content on NBC, USA Network and Peacock.
Four races air on NBC and will be simulcast on Peacock — the Daytona summer race, and the final three races of the year at Talladega, Martinsville and Phoenix. The remaining races during this portion will air on USA Network.
The CW Network is the exclusive home to the NASCAR Xfinity Series beginning in 2025 and extending through the 2031 season with 33 live races, along with practice and qualifying events each weekend. All Xfinity Series races and ancillary content will be fully produced by NASCAR Productions in close collaboration with The CW Network.
Xfinity Series races air live on The CW on broadcast only, with streaming replays available the next day on The CW App. While you watch the race on broadcast, though, keep your phone or preferred device close — The CW App will stream live in-car cameras during races.
Live practice and qualifying sessions are available in The CW App exclusively.
That might seem hard to conceive now for an event that has crisscrossed the country twice in the past three years while mushrooming into a preseason extravaganza, bringing NASCAR to fresh, untapped and occasionally under-appreciated markets.
But during the exhibition race’s 33-year run at Daytona International Speedway, multi-colored jackets were a major perk that signified your car had made the invite-only club for Cup Series pole winners.
“There was a couple of times in those races that was the highlight,” Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Len Wood said with a chuckle. “They gave them to all the team members. That would have been the highlight of the week.”
Heading into its 47th running, the ancillary benefits and earth-shattering buzz have far outgrown those exclusive fashion statements of The Clash, which will be held outside Daytona for the fourth consecutive year this weekend as an annual preseason party with an all-inclusive ambiance.
Bowman Gray Stadium, a NASCAR mainstay for seven decades in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will take the baton from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, an iconic arena primarily known for the Olympics and football that spotlighted stock-car racing on a temporary asphalt oval in the middle of the concrete jungle.
The last few seasons have stirred omnipresent chatter about the merits of rotating the Cup championship finale, but The Clash is offering a real-time template of how that vision could resonate in both attracting new fans and placating the old guard.
“I think it’s great that the location is changing, and I think it should change every year,” Alex Bowman said. “Obviously we have the capability of doing it. We’re going to tiny race tracks with it now. So continuing to evolve it and do different things is kind of what NASCAR has become all about. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds.”
Though it’s likely The Clash (which sold out two months early) will have an engagement with Bowman Gray Stadium beyond 2025, three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano said the event should head to new destinations.
“It always draws up a little bit more excitement, and people talk about it more when it’s something new,” said Logano, who won the inaugural Clash at the Coliseum. “When we went to LA the first time, remember all the talk of what that race was going to be like and no one had a clue?
“It draws up a lot of hype, which is good, and you’re also bringing it to the race fan. When you look at what Winston-Salem is to our sport, and that whole region, there are a ton of NASCAR fans there, but it’s also cool that we’re giving race fans that might not have been able to go to other races an opportunity to see a race. Whether that’s in Winston-Salem or in LA or name a city, I think moving it around is cool because it gives people opportunity.”
Erick Messer | Messer Media for Bowman Gray Stadium
Citing new Cup races in Mexico City, the outskirts of Nashville and downtown Chicago as other examples of bringing NASCAR’s product to the people, Christopher Bell sees The Clash’s recent history as a blueprint for the future.
“I love that concept, and I love the diversification of the NASCAR schedule,” Bell said. “I would love to get to a point in NASCAR where we’re going to every venue once a year. And I think that just helps create excitement and helps make every race feel like an event. … I would love to see more new tracks on the schedule every year. I think that’s super important.”
Evolving from the Daytona oval
From 1979-2021, The Clash was a fixture (albeit under various sponsor-driven monikers) at Daytona International Speedway. It’s a little dizzying to reflect on how the willingness to take the show on the road was accepted virtually overnight as a stroke of scheduling genius.
The vibe shift started with the baby steps of moving the event from the Daytona oval to the track’s road course in 2021. Then came the quantum leap of spending millions to construct a temporary short track inside the LA Coliseum, which drew a debut crowd of 50,000 with at least 70 percent first-time ticket buyers (per NASCAR data).
“I thought what we did in LA, especially the first year with how many new fans, was one of the largest wins our sport has ever seen that I’ve been a part of,” Logano said. “Going to a whole new market and racing downtown basically. I thought that was huge.”
Now it’s back to the future at Bowman Gray, a rough-and-tumble quarter-mile that has held more than 1,000 NASCAR-sanctioned races since 1949 but primarily is famous for its weekly modified series since its most recent Cup race was held in 1971.
In moving from the second-largest metropolitan area in the country to the fifth-largest city in North Carolina, there is a common thread.
Once a private society of pole winners meeting for a match race at Daytona (its inaugural field had nine cars racing for 20 laps), The Clash was repositioned in LA as a carnival with “halftime” concerts and heat races.
The same atmosphere will be celebrated in Winston-Salem, where The Clash will be held over two days with several hours of practice, qualifying and racing sandwiched around fan festivals. With a nod to the track fondly known as “The Madhouse” for bare-knuckle racing, there also will be a modified race on Saturday.
For the co-owners of Wood Brothers Racing, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, untethering The Clash from Daytona’s pure focus on racing was the right call for turning it into a traveling show.
“Back in the early days of Daytona, you were talking about being over in 16 or 17 minutes,” Len Wood said. “That was a short show. What they did (in Los Angeles) with the heat races and the concerts like Ice Cube, they made a whole day of it, and I think that went over much better than a 17-minute show.”
While Eddie Wood recalls it was “a big honor” to make The Clash at Daytona, he is giddy when explaining what the event will mean for Bowman Gray Stadium, a racing hotbed where he has attended races since it “was almost the center of NASCAR” in the 1960s.
Susan Wong | NASCAR
“The way they’re doing it now, instead of a race, it’s an event to me,” Wood said. “You’ve got so many things going on, and I just think it’s good for Winston-Salem. I’ve been there in the middle of the summer and for opening night for the weekly series, and it’s packed. I’ve seen 18,000 to 20,000 people there. I’m interested in seeing the back wall above the grandstand. I’ve seen that with people six deep, so I’m interested to see how that shakes out. I like what they’re doing.”
Having raced Modifieds four times at Bowman Gray Stadium, Ryan Preece believes Winston-Salem deservedly has been rewarded with a major-league exhibition after its long absence from Cup.
“That’s a city that gets behind racing (and) Bowman Gray Stadium,” he said. “For anybody that’s never been to that race track on their typical weekly show, the place is jammed. It’s a community that loves racing and supports the race track.”
The future of The Clash
Which community might get the next crack at The Clash?
Cup drivers have myriad ideas but also have realistic expectations for an event that naturally must take place during the winter.
“It’s really tough because there are different little pockets in the United States that are really passionate about racing,” Preece said. “The challenge is it’s February.”
The Roush Fenway Keselowski driver suggested trying The Clash at New Smyrna Speedway, just south of Daytona.
A Southwest locale also would make sense. NASCAR once ran a winter heat series in Tucson, Arizona (which happens to be Bowman’s hometown).
“If we’re going to do it in stadiums, there’s obviously all kinds of places we can go,” Bowman said. “If we’re going to go to different race tracks that Cup just doesn’t go to, I think there are a lot of great race tracks throughout the country that can put on a good show. It just is tough being in February or January. But there’s all kinds of places to go. There’s probably not one that’s fair to pick. I feel like we can kind of put it anywhere, and they’ve continued to show that.”
Logano leans toward another major metro area.
“I would love to see our sport continue to do things like that because it just feels big,” he said. “The Coliseum felt like a big event. I’m not saying Bowman Gray doesn’t feel big, but it feels like we’re going to our grassroots, which is also cool in its own way but different. So, personally, I’d like to see us race in the cities.
“That’s where our sport has a little bit more of a challenge because it’s hard to put a 1-mile or 2-mile race track in a city. So if we have the opportunity to be like a baseball, basketball, hockey and NFL team, where their stadiums are where the people are and where people can walk to it, you get a whole new demographic.”
For at least another year, though, it’s expected those Clash fans will be flocking to Bowman Gray Stadium.
“I just think that people are going to be really excited for it,” Chase Elliott said. “I think that that’s going to last more than a year. Hopefully, it just carries the energy a little further before they have to switch it up again.”
Said Preece: “The energy that they’re going see from that community, even though it’s probably going to be 42 degrees or whatever, it’s going to be awesome.”
And maybe just the right temperature for a vintage Clash coat.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is the host of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast and also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
CONCORD, N.C. — Overheard conversation in the NASCAR Cup Series garage: “Kind of weird, isn’t it? It’s like a test session without a test.”
And so it was Thursday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which hosted pre-race inspection for a race it’s not hosting.
NASCAR competition officials scrutineered and approved the 39 entries for the season-opening Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, conducting their tests and checks at the 1.5-mile Charlotte track’s garage. The speedway was chosen as a convenient alternate site for inspection, given the small footprint of the garage area at the stadium, which will be host of Sunday’s preseason exhibition (8 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for the first time.
While the two-track, two-stage start to the race weekend was unusual, it’s not a drastic departure from how flexible teams and officials have had to be in recent years. Garage setups and inspection stations have been placed on major metropolitan thoroughfares (Chicago Street Race) and in tailgate lots and side streets (during the Clash’s three-year run at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum).
“I think in this day and age, you’ve got to expect about anything,” said Paul Wolfe, crew chief for the Team Penske No. 22 Ford of defending Cup champ Joey Logano. “That’s what I’ve come to realize, that nothing will really surprise you anymore — and I say that in a good way, right? I mean, this made a lot of sense for the constraints we have up there, as far as space and whatnot. …
“We’ve done so many things in the last handful of years that I don’t think anyone would ever have thought, and we make it work. A lot of times, we learn a lot from it, and we continue to evolve as a sport. I think that’s the biggest thing, is staying open-minded, and I think the last few years has really taught all of us that we’ve got to work together. There’s a lot of people with great ideas.”
As the reigning championship-winning team, Wolfe’s No. 22 Ford was the first car through Thursday. Officials made use of the cover of the Cup Series garage for templates, scales and the optical scanning station, and each organization loaded primary cars from two teams into a single hauler once inspection was complete.
Officials placed tamper-proof seals on the hood, rear deck and hauler doors to secure their work. The haulers were to stay overnight at the Charlotte track before making their way to Winston-Salem for Friday’s load-in, all ahead of Saturday’s on-track sessions.
Cup Series director Brad Moran said Thursday afternoon that operations had gone smoothly, thanking the officials at track owners Speedway Motorsports for the use of their facilities.
“This really made it convenient for the teams,” Moran said as the inspection rounds were nearing completion. “… We’ll get them parked tomorrow, and we’ll be ready to go on Saturday. So real good, and it was welcome from the teams. They appreciate it, and we’re getting through them pretty good, so we should be out of here on time, and everybody’s looking forward to a great weekend at Bowman Gray.”
Inspection indeed was completed without issue, and officials reported there were no multiple failures. It was a relatively quiet procedure — pierced only by Ford Performance vehicles making demonstration runs for the manufacturer’s preseason splash — before load-in begins at the quarter-mile track known as “The Madhouse.”
“It was uniquely calm today. I think it’s great,” said Phil Surgen, crew chief of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet for Ross Chastain. “You know, all the shops are five minutes down the road, our houses are 15 minutes down the street, so this works out really well for all the team guys, and NASCAR accomplished everything they wanted to get done today, too. So, yeah, I welcome this.”
TNT Sports announced the launch of a brand-new NASCAR Driver Cam experience — exclusive to Max — that will offer motorsports fans the ultimate all-access pass to every driver for every race throughout the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
Launching with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 2 (8 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), NASCAR Driver Cam on Max will offer users the most comprehensive access inside each driver’s car — up to 40 drivers each race — including a layered audio mix of scanner team radios and ambient car noise, all synced up with a 1080p Driver Cam feed on supported devices.
At launch, fans will be able to choose between individual Driver Cams or two pre-set Multiview stream options featuring four drivers each, chosen based on the most compelling matchups and storylines each week. B/R Racing’s X and Instagram platforms will also run a weekly poll to enable fans to vote on which four drivers will be featured on a special “Fan Selected” Multiview stream on Max.
TNT Sports
Each individual driver stream will have integrated live stats — stage, lap number, position and race status — along with telemetry data including speed, RPM, gear and more. Users will be able to pause, rewind and fast forward live video as well, and a replay of each individual driver stream will be available following each race.
On race days, the NASCAR Driver Cams along with the featured and fan-selected Multiviews will all be available to stream within the B/R Sports section on Max. Users can find all NASCAR Driver Cam on Max live content on the upcoming schedule at https://play.max.com/live-sports-schedule
NASCAR Driver Cam on Max will be available for all drivers across all 38 race weekends of the Cup Series schedule, including the Daytona 500, all seeding races for and each race of the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Tournament and the Cup Series Playoffs.
TNT Sports’ networks will exclusively present the inaugural in-season tournament, starting with Atlanta’s night race on Saturday, June 28, followed by four consecutive Sundays of adrenaline-pumping race action: July 6 in Chicago, July 13 in Sonoma, July 20 in Dover and July 27 in Indianapolis. All races will also simulcast on Max.
TNT Sports and NASCAR are entering the inaugural campaign of a new seven-year multimedia rights agreement for distribution in the U.S. that will see some of the biggest moments in the NASCAR season returning to TNT Sports’ linear and streaming platforms. Additionally, truTV and Max will exclusively present the second half of the Cup Series practices and qualifying sessions each season.
The new agreement also includes expansive highlight rights for Bleacher Report’s digital and social platforms, including B/R Racing as a dedicated content destination for NASCAR fans.
This marks the continuation of TNT Sports’ 32-year relationship with NASCAR, a collaboration that began in 1983 and one that has been centered on innovation and creativity that was instrumental to the growth of the sport.
