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5 Points to Ponder: A Better Idea for Bowman Gray

1. The Clash at Bowman Gray Was Worth the Wait

If NASCAR fans broke out into WWE-style chants during a race, there would absolutely have been at least one “this is awesome” chorus ringing out through Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night (Feb. 2). Maybe more than one since perennial Most Popular Driver winner Chase Elliott also took home the trophy, holding off Ryan Blaney in expert fashion as the laps wound down.

Considering the racetrack/football stadium hadn’t hosted a NASCAR Cup Series event in more than 50 years, no one really knew what to expect. Would it be a constant wreckfest, particularly with no points on the line?

As it turned out, no. The racing was fun and mostly what you’d think would be the best-case scenario on a quarter-mile oval with Cup cars. Drivers ran into each other a lot with accordion-style bumping on darn near every lap, but because speeds were low, cars could be moved out of the way without necessarily smashing them.

Whatever you might think of the way NASCAR’s decision-makers go about their business, there’s no denying they have tried a lot of different things over the past few years; different venues, the choose rule, option tires and the list goes on and on. As my colleague Dalton Hopkins rightly pointed out, however, this year’s Clash was one of the few times it felt like drivers, fans and the media all approved of something.

Packed stands, a fun race and universal acclaim aren’t things that all come together for NASCAR all that often, so the Clash should definitely return to Bowman Gray in 2026, right? As Jake from State Farm said to Patrick Mahomes in a recent ad, “Well … “

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2. That Doesn’t Mean We Can’t Find a Better Use for Bowman Gray

I was this close to using this point to argue for a points race at Bowman Gray. If the Cup Series championship is supposed to be decided among the best at navigating the widest number of track types, why not a quarter-mile oval too? Eventually, I decided against choosing violence in the first column of 2025.

It still seems a bit of a waste to keep the Clash in Winston-Salem indefinitely. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison by any means, but there were diminishing returns for holding the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum once the novelty wore off. It will take longer than a year or two, for sure, but eventually the same thing will likely happen at Bowman Gray if NASCAR keeps its preseason showcase there.

The NASCAR All-Star Race would be a different story. Like the Clash, NASCAR doesn’t seem to know what to do with it to keep interest high (and to be fair, it’s not alone in that as every major U.S. sports league except maybe the MLB has had the same struggles). North Wilkesboro Speedway has been a good host, perhaps the most inspired choice in the event’s existence.

Bowman Gray would be even better. Put the best of the best out there on a track type they don’t see the rest of the year. Have the Open along with heats to set the field. NASCAR can even still experiment with goofy but harmless things like different stage lengths and field inversions. Play a concert in the infield between stages. Whatevs.

One thing I feel pretty confident about is that the place would be packed each and every year. Part of that is because Bowman Gray holds a modest 17,000 fans, but sports is a supply-and-demand game, and the limited amount of the former would ensure plenty of the latter.

Other leagues would love to have a “problem” like their All-Star events becoming the hottest ticket in town. NASCAR should really at least consider going this route.

3. Let’s Overreact Wildly to Clash Results!

ESPN’s NFL writers do a fantastic job with weekly columns that overreact to the events of each week in that league. NASCAR lends itself to that same kind of analysis, and doing it for the Clash is even more fun since, you know, it’s not a points race and might not mean anything once the real season arrives in a couple of weeks.

But you can understand the temptation by thinking back on what happened during the race and dissecting the final results. Maybe Elliott is really going to be locked in this year while Kyle Busch, for one, continues to struggle. Shane van Gisbergen might adjust really quickly to being a Cup Series regular while Bubba Wallace could be the best of the 23XI Racing entries in 2025.

Saying Blaney will be a factor in the title chase once again is probably going out on even less of a limb. Still, it’s important to remember that what we all just saw might end up meaning absolutely nothing once the real racing begins. Or we can just overreact anew, which would also be fun.

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The Big 6: Questions Answered After Chase Elliott Shines in NASCAR's Return to Bowman Gray

4. A Weird Xfinity TV Information Glitch Caught My Eye Sunday Night

With apologies to another one of my Frontstretch mates, Phil Allaway, who covers the TV beat, one of the most unusual things I saw Sunday night had nothing to do with the FOX broadcast but instead what was listed in the channel guide by Xfinity. When it was time for the Clash to get underway, the text in the guide listed not the race name but instead read “NASCAR Cup Series: No. 1 Ross Chastain.”

It was probably just a mistake, an error of some sort listing one of the participants instead of the race info. The “connect two dots that maybe shouldn’t be connected” part of my brain came up with another idea: what if it’s brilliant subliminal marketing for the driver cams?

I’m referring to the announcement made a few days ago that TNT Sports will show driver cams for up to 40 drivers per race (a.k.a. the whole field) on the Max streaming service. It’s a cool way of making those of us who attended races back in the teens remember those FanVision devices that let you focus on individual drivers if you so desired.

Considering this error was on the TV listings and had nothing to do with Max, it was probably a coincidence. Big props to whoever thought to do that if it wasn’t.

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Couch Potato Tuesday: Bowman Gray Has Action, Some Teething

5. Oh Yeah, Daytona!

This is not a revisionist history item to close things out. The Daytona 500 is still the biggest race; the one casual stock car racing supporters or even complete non-fans care about most. There’s no denying that it’s the most meaningful NASCAR race to win, even if drivers might occasionally name another event as a truer test of skill.

Yet for the first time since I started following NASCAR regularly in the early 2000s, some different thoughts have been creeping into my head for the 2025 edition. FOX has been promoting the race pretty regularly, including during NFL playoff games. So it’s not a lack of promotion, though it’s also fair to say that the network has lost some live programming (like WWE SmackDown) that used to have a lot of crossover advertising.

It might be due to the decreasing overall footprint of traditional sports media. There simply are fewer talking heads on widely viewed platforms talking up this race. NASCAR fans have plenty of outlets to get all the info, previews and speculation they need (like this very site), so it’s more a matter of perception.

Perhaps that’s all it is, that the Daytona 500 feels a little like it’s losing its stranglehold on this time of the overall sports calendar. Traditionally, college football was long over by the time engines fired, the Super Bowl was the week before and the winter sports hadn’t hit their stretch runs yet.

This year has been different. College football had its longest season ever, fueled by a new 12-team playoff. The NBA just captured attention like it’s never seen in February thanks to an unthinkable trade of superstars. The NHL is about to have a best-on-best tournament that runs right through Speedweeks. And the NFL, ever the bully on the block, has been talking up an 18-game season. Or at least its commissioner has, which is essentially the same thing.

Once the cars and trucks arrive at Daytona International Speedway, it’s likely all of this will fade away. The racing will crank up, the season will start in earnest and the Great American Race will seem as regal as ever.

Or at least that’s my hope, and I’d imagine NASCAR feels the same way.

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John

I thought the Clash was better than expected. Ratings were great compared to last year’s disaster of pulling the event ahead a day do to a big rain storm coming, but it was 15% worse than 2023…and there was nothing on TV in the sports world. Thirty-eight events are going to happen for the next 7 years. I’d like to see Nascar start the season with a points race in Mexico in place of the Clash…and then make the All Star race into a points paying event. The All Star race has struggled for years to be marginally interesting and the Clash, I’m sorry, has been good, not great since it left Daytona. Nascar doesn’t need a special race to try things…they’ve doing it on the fly for the last 2 years. Moving numbers forward on the door is not a good reason to waste a weekend. It was 20 degrees warmer in Mexico at race time.
I know I’m committing original sin by not praising the Bowman Gray event, but recall that Nascar quit running these tracks, in part, because they could only fit 24 cars on the track. Could you picture Bowman Gray with 40 cars on it?

Kevin in SoCal

And how would they pit the cars at B-G, as a points race? Non-competitive pit stops? Ugh.

sb

do what they did for the clash. Preliminary races, have to run them to qualify. Not that hard to pare down the field to a workable number.

Shayne

A better idea is to let the Cup guys drive modifieds at Bowman Gray. Might give Tim Brown and Burt Meyers a leg up.

Running a points race without live pit stops would prove nothing. At the end of the day, it’s still a gimmick.

Matty

38 race weekends are too many. Atlanta in February and Martinsville in late October is criminal to the fans, or what’s left of them. The racers, the crews and their families are worn out by the time of the Roval. All of this to capture the last buck from the networks. I’m out, Audi

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