Who … should you be talking about after the race?
It took longer to run 50 miles at Bowman Gray Stadium than it takes to run 400 at some tracks, but when it was all over, Ryan Preece took the No. 60 from 18th to victory lane in the 2026 Cookout Clash. He held off William Byron and Ryan Blaney over a marathon second half of the race to score the win, three days after the race was originally scheduled, thanks to a rare blizzard in central North Carolina on Saturday.
It was Preece’s first win in NASCAR Cup Series competition, coming after he mortgaged his home to pay for a part-time ride and paid his dues with mid-pack teams before landing at RFK Racing last year. While not a points race, Preece showed he belonged with his hard-nosed racing before an emotional celebration.
An aggressive move to pass leader Shane van Gisbergen on a wet track, leaning hard on the No. 97, gave Preece an advantage. He kept that top spot through restart after restart, swapping with van Gisbergen once more before he took over for good with 44 laps to go. He managed his tires, forcing mistakes from other drivers as the laps finally wound down.
Preece looked like a win wasn’t far off at times last year. With newfound confidence after opening 2026 with a win, don’t be surprised if he finds victory lane again this year.
On the other hand …
Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson looked strong early on. He won the pole and dominated the first half of the race until he lost the lead on a restart and backslid into the field.
From there, it went from bad to worse. In the second 100-lap segment, Larson spun on the wet track, got going again, ran out of fuel, and got sandwiched in traffic, finishing off the No. 5 inside 25 laps to go.
Larson may be entering 2026 among the title favorites, but he’d probably just as soon forget the season kickoff.
What … does this mean for the title hopefuls?
It’s easy to say it’s meaningless. An exhibition race with no points on the line and a half-sized field is not the same as the real thing, which starts in earnest in just a week at Daytona International Speedway.
But don’t think this race means nothing to teams. While Bowman Gray isn’t on the regular-season schedule and it’s unlikely to be as cold as it was Wednesday night, it’s a short, flat track. Teams will absolutely be gathering information to use later on at tracks like Martinsville Speedway and gauging how the competition is faring overall on this type of track.
The new Chase system puts more emphasis on consistency in the first 26 races. Winning is now worth more points, but wins alone do not guarantee a Chase berth. There’s no last-ditch effort at Daytona in September. That’s now based solely on points earned, and that means teams and drivers will have to scrap for every point available.
That begins tonight. Teams aren’t just shaking down cars; teams with driver and/or crew changes are learning to communicate and get what they need from each other and their cars. There may not be points on the line, but 2026 starts now.
Where … did he come from?
Three of the top four finishers started the night outside of the top 15. Preece came from 18th to take the win, while third-place Blaney started 16th and Daniel Suarez came from 20th to finish fourth.
All three drivers were aggressive after the rain and sleet fell, making the most of treacherous conditions and leaning on other cars as they moved through the field. In the first half, they all raised a few eyebrows for pushing and shoving, but that’s the recipe for success on a quarter-mile track and none of them crossed a line, though some of their competitors might feel otherwise in the moment.
Hopefully, drivers moving through the field for strong finishes will continue in the Cup Series this year. It’s good for the sport when drivers can make their own luck and work their way forward from a suboptimal start, especially with a championship format that favors strong finishes and wins no longer guarantee entry.
When … was the moment of truth?
Mother Nature was not a fan of this race. After the three-day snow delay, it was bitterly cold by North Carolina standards. Between the delay and the cold, it appeared plenty of fans took advantage of NASCAR’s refund policy for the race.
And then she slapped everyone with one more shot of sleet midrace, just for good measure, bringing out a half-hour red flag for rain. All in all, it took well over three hours to run just 50 miles, with more than twice as much time spent under caution or red flags than under green. The official time of the race was 2 hours and 20 minutes, but the reality is the broadcast began at 6 p.m. ET and ended at almost 10 p.m. ET, including the opening ceremony and victory lane. That’s too long for a race that short.
The problem? Not counting the caution laps. Even if the race had to end under green, the mid-race caution laps should have counted toward the total. The race ran so long over the expected time that the end was relegated to FS2, FOX’s lowest-tier network, so some fans didn’t see the checkers at all.
Because of NASCAR’s rules on teams refueling cars and teams going light on fuel to save weight, the race turned into a mileage headache. Teams and drivers were frustrated with the race dragging on. Even Preece expressed his dismay with the way parts of the race played out.
NASCAR should have opted to count the caution laps once the track was wet. As it is, the race went on so long that it overshadowed the several good things that should have been the takeaway.
Why … should you be paying attention after this week?
Two things: First, a pair of veterans will start the season with physical issues from offseason injuries. Brad Keselowski is recovering from a broken femur suffered while skiing with his family. Corey LaJoie filled in behind the wheel of the No. 6 for the Clash, as Keselowski has not yet completed his 2026 NASCAR licensing requirements. He said earlier this week he expects to complete them later in the week and plans to be ready for Daytona. How fast he’ll get his groove back remains to be seen, but he is on the tail end of the healing process.
Denny Hamlin reinjured his surgically repaired (2023) shoulder a few weeks ago after a fall but announced Wednesday he’ll try to race through the injury rather than miss seat time for further surgery. Whether he can be at 100% all season will be the question for Hamlin.
The second, of course, is the ramp-up for the Daytona 500. The speculative entry list (the official list will likely come on Monday) includes 45 cars. The field will expand to 41 this year, with Jimmie Johnson being approved for the special exemption provisional (an extra spot reserved for an elite driver that comes with no points or prize money regardless of finish).
That means four teams will go home early. Open entries expected to attempt the race include a fourth Front Row Motorsports car for Chandler Smith, JR Motorsports with Justin Allgaier, NY Racing with (most likely) JJ Yeley, Anthony Alfredo for Beard Motorsports, Casey Mears for MBM Motorsports, a fourth 23XI entry for Craftsman Truck Series champion Corey Heim, Live Fast Motorsports with BJ McLeod and a fourth RFK car with LaJoie behind the wheel.
While the part-timers may not be racing for points in the opener, they are racing for an outside shot at the sport’s most prestigious title. They’ll be fighting tooth and nail for the four available starting spots, which should lend some color to the qualifying races next week.
How … did this race stack up?
There was a lot to like. Drivers were able to pass under green when the track was dry, and when the wet tires came out, the race was what many fans think of as classic short track fare, with drivers leaning on each other and the bravest making some daring moves. Aggression was the name of the game, and that’s been somewhat lacking on the short tracks in the Next Gen era
The high-horsepower package looked promising. How it will shake down on a larger track in a points-paying race remains to be seen. The leader will always have an aerodynamic advantage to some degree because physics exists, but things were racy.
What kept it from being memorable for the right reasons was the sheer amount of time spent under caution. That’s a shame, because the postponement of the race already brought negative attention, and the cautions mean fans won’t think about what did work. People will look at the Clash at Daytona with rose-colored glasses, and that all adds up to a 2026 race that was better than many will remember.
The final verdict: When they were under green, that was a good short-track race. Not counting the caution laps and letting it drag on so long hurt the final product. Preece is a hell of a wheelman, and he ran a great race from his pass on SVG to his tire management. He earned this one.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
Thanks Fox for the switch to FS2.
I didn’t want to see the end anyway.
Hat tip to the fans who stuck out the awful weather –and on a weeknight / school night no less.
The channel swap was the icing on the frozen cake.
Pretty sure Preece dropped the f-bomb in post-race interview but by then I wasn’t paying attention.
The season is off to what seems to be a typical start for TV coverage Have you suddenly chasing channels for coverage and realizing you have FS1 At some point you have to realize how frustrating it has become to be fan
FOX really screwed the pooch on this one. What a joke of a network.
Hahahahaha!!! Reading the comments and analysis only reinforces my decision to watch much less NASCAR this year. What a cluster. Glad I missed this one.
Let’s see:
Race postponed 3 days, because it was smart to put an early February race in snow country!
Temperatures hovering around freezing, with a mix of rain and sleet for the fans!
3 hours to run 50 miles, because caution laps don’t count!
Ad-libbed refueling needed, for a 50 mile race!
Fox tells viewers “go be poor somewhere else”, and kicks coverage to a channel many don’t receive! Also screws DVR viewers!
Those who did tune in, I’m guessing I missed some stuff. What else happened?
You missed a MasterClass on tire stagger.
It reminded me of the Oxford 250. 250 green flag laps. Making the pit stop at the right time to allow for enough gas and tires at the end. More than a few leaders ran out of gas near the end with the win in sight.
Even the Snow Gods are mad at NA$CAR!
I like the idea of not counting caution laps. The way this “event” played out there would have been about 40 green flag laps. Maybe. I believe it was 165 green flaps laps and 135 caution laps.
I’ll watch the expanded highlight reel on YouTube tonight. I do that for all the races, so I’ll just add this to the list.
The main question now is “What did the NA$CAR brain trust learn from this?” and will it be the expected one? I’m expecting the move back to California.