NASCAR
3 Fast Facts About the Unofficial Start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Season at Historic Bowman Gray Stadium

With the running of four Saturday heat races at Bowman Gray Stadium, the field is mostly set for Sunday’s Cook Out Clash — an exhibition race that marks the unofficial start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Before the green flag for the main event waves just after 8 p.m. EST on FOX, here are three important facts you need to know about the new site of NASCAR’s annual preseason showdown.
Here’s a hint: Bowman Gray actually isn’t so new at all.
Standing room only and dialed in on the madness.
Tomorrow is about to be a show 🍿 pic.twitter.com/ag4rToqp5n
— Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium (@nascarclash) February 2, 2025
1. Bowman Gray Stadium Is Rich In NASCAR History
Built in 1937 as a public works project during the Great Depression, Bowman Gray Stadium began as a college football field and evolved into a multipurpose venue. Bowman Gray is steeped in NASCAR history as the sport’s longest-running weekly race track. The quarter-mile asphalt oval in Winston-Salem, North Carolina hosted 29 NASCAR Cup Series races from 1958 to 1971.
Bowman Gray also played host to several NASCAR East Series races from 2011 to 2015 and regularly hosts four classes of competition: NASCAR Modifieds, the Sportsman division, the Street Stock division and the Stadium Stock division. This weekend is the first Cup Series event at the fabled facility in 54 years.
In 1949, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. brought motorsports to Bowman Gray as the first paved race track that NASCAR competed on. NASCAR took over the long-term management of racing operations at Bowman Gray last year in partnership with the City of Winston-Salem.
2. A Lot Of NASCAR Drivers Past And Present Are No Stranger To Bowman Gray
NASCAR legends who competed at Bowman Gray in the old days include Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Glen Wood, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook and Richard Childress. Petty, the Cup Series’ all-time wins leader with 200 victories, captured his 100th Cup Series triumph in the 1969 Myers Brothers 250 at Bowman Gray.
More recently, Ben Kennedy — a NASCAR executive who is the great-grandson of Bill France Sr. — recorded a NASCAR East Series win at Bowman Gray in 2013. Two-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes and current Cup Series drivers Ryan Preece and Corey LaJoie have also been to Victory Lane here.
The list of other active Cup Series drivers who’ve previously raced at Bowman Gray includes Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace.
Elliott, NASCAR’s most popular driver, will start P1 on Sunday’s race grid after winning his Saturday heat.
3. Bowman Gray Is Just The Fourth Track To Host The Clash
Since the first Clash took place on Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile high-banked oval in 1979, only two other layouts besides the DIS superspeedway and Bowman Gray Stadium have hosted February’s non-points-paying event that serves as an appetizer, of sorts, for the Daytona 500. They are the Daytona International Speedway Road Course (2021) and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which has been the site of the Clash the past three years.
Bowman Gray is the second short track to host the Clash, coming on the heels of the makeshift LA Memorial Coliseum quarter mile, which was the first.
To be ready for this weekend, Bowman Gray recently added Musco lighting. The custom-designed system aims to improve track lighting and visibility, reduce energy consumption, enhance the overall experience for drivers and fans, and provide the necessary illumination for nationally-televised racing events. Funding for the lighting system came from a pandemic recovery grant the City of Winston-Salem received in 2022 as part of the North Carolina Motorsports Relief Fund.
Also in preparation for this weekend, Bowman Gray installed SAFER barrier and new catch fences. These fences are a feature of every other NASCAR national series race track.