WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — As the dust settles on the night of NASCAR’s return to Bowman Gray Stadium, nobody in the field is happier than Burt Myers.
For the first time since 1971, the NASCAR Cup Series is back at “the Madhouse” for the 2025 Cook Out Clash. Bowman Gray modified stars Myers and Tim Brown are in the field with the Cup Series regulars, representing the local crowd on the biggest stage.
The Myers and Brown rivalry goes back decades, with Brown claiming 12 track championships to Myers’ 11 and 101 victories to Myers’ 97.
In Saturday (Feb. 1) night’s heat races for the Clash, Myers got the better of Brown in the closing laps of the third heat race. It was the fight for last as they continued to learn the racecars, but the battle amongst each other still matters to those two.
Myers was thrilled when he climbed from the car, despite the challenge that lies ahead on Sunday (Feb 2).
"For us to take this small team and my limited experience and gain half a second from when we started out, I think that speaks volumes."@BurtMyers discusses the pace improvement of his car, strategy for tomorrow's LCQ, and NASCAR returning to Bowman Gray.
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) February 2, 2025
📹: @cfolsom_racing pic.twitter.com/Qa7HgkqOxE
“I mean, just between me and Tim, I’m sure that there’s a battle within the battle,” Myers told Frontstretch. “We wanted to beat each other. I mean, we still didn’t accomplish our goal; our goal was to get in the feature.
“… We made leaps and bounds from where we were earlier today, we’re a half a second faster than when we unloaded, that’s major. For us to take a small team and my limited experience and gain half a second from where we started to now, I think that speaks volumes.”
Despite the lack of experience in a Cup car, Myers didn’t feel like the learning curve was too steep. Rather, it was just another day in a race car. The thousands of laps around Bowman Gray will certainly help Myers heading into the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) Sunday evening.
“They’re different, but a race car is a race car,” Myers said. “You go back to muscle memory and going back to what you know how to do in a race car. Your default always goes back to a situation like this: ‘Is it me? Is it me? Are we not fast because of me?’ But then I get behind somebody and I see what I need my car to do; we just got to get it to do that.”
No matter the result, this weekend is all about the experience for Myers, living out a dream of racing a Cup car around the track where he’s been so successful. Despite all the changes to the facility and the new cast of characters on the racetrack, it’s still the same wild Bowman Gray crowd.
“It’s amazing,” Myers said. “It doesn’t even feel like Bowman Gray at this point. I guess technically that was my first Cup race. It was a heat race but it was still a race. The atmosphere is still Bowman Gray Stadium but it doesn’t feel like Bowman Gray Stadium because of the platform that we’re on, so it’s pretty cool.”
Speaking of the Bowman Gray fans, it’s been a long time coming for them to get an event of this magnitude back at their racetrack, and Myers recognizes it. The longest-running NASCAR weekly track in the nation with one of the most loyal, passionate fanbases in the sport, is finally getting its moment.
“I think I saw somewhere [that] somebody said it’s almost like they deserve it,” Myers said. “I really like that because these fans here have been so loyal and so passionate for so many years to get this experience. A lot of people that come to Bowman Gray. They are religious, they come here every weekend, they support this place and they support drivers.
“They don’t get a chance to go see Cup races and Cup drivers. Man, do you know how up close and personal they are tonight to these Cup drivers that they see on TV on Sunday? They deserve it. This place is where it started, so it’s only fitting that it’s back here.”
Myers will get a chance to put on a show for the Bowman Gray faithful Sunday evening, as he’ll start deep in the field of the LCQ. He’ll have 75 laps, but only the top two advance, so it’s a tough but not impossible hill to climb. The only thing certain is that the Bowman Gray crowd will be on their feet, especially for Myers and Brown like a typical Winston-Salem Saturday night.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.