NASCAR Drivers Give Bowman Gray Stadium Clash Thumbs Up

Racing action during the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Chase Elliott admits he’s a little biased. After all, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet just won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Clash at the legendary Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“I’m a little biased in the situation just for myself. It was an extremely special moment. I think the people in the crowd here made it that. I’m thankful for that.

“Yeah, it was a moment I’ll never forget, for sure. It’s not every day you not only race in an environment like that, but to have the opportunity to win and kind of share that moment with the crowd, it was really cool.

“I hope we put on a good show. I hope they enjoyed it. Seemed like they were into it throughout the night. Yeah, seemed like a success.

“I know it’s always tough from a winner’s perspective when everything goes your way, but it seemed like the track was racy. Just thought the whole deal was much improved compared to the last few years.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet celebrates in victory lane after winning the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

The last three years, NASCAR’s non-points, season-opening exhibition race was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on a quarter-mile infield track that had to be constructed each year.

For 2025, NASCAR chose to run the event on similar sized track at Bowman Gray Stadium that dates back to the beginning of NASCAR. Instead of exposing the sport to new, prospective fans, NASCAR chose to bring the Clash to the “Madhouse” and some of the most passionate stock car racing fans in the country.

“It was a great environment before the race,” said Elliott, who dominated the event leading 171 of the race’s 200 laps. “I just think probably the biggest lesson I’ve taken from the weekend is kind of reaffirming my belief in less is more. Like this crowd, it wasn’t 80,000, 90,000 person crowd, but it was a smaller number, a more intimate number. They were all very much into the show.

“I think it makes for good TV. It looks good. They were into it. I think all those things are positives for us as an industry.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota lead the field during the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

According to Elliott, Bowman Gray Stadium felt racier than the Coliseum.

“I think just the size of the track. It just seemed bigger to me. I don’t know what the technical distance would be, how different it is or not. The straightaways seemed a little longer, the corners weren’t so sharp. Didn’t seem like it was such a sharp apex.

“I think all of those things, that combined with the track surface having some age to it, all three of those things probably had a pretty large impact on the race being better and kind of putting it a little more in your hands as far as tire management and all that stuff.

“Those would be the three big ones for me.”

Crew members push the #99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet driven by Daniel Suarez on track during driver intros prior to the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Three-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who finished 4th in his Team Penske Ford, echoed Elliott’s take on the passion of the fans in attendance.

“I thought the pre-race ceremony was pretty cool. The fans being right there, it’s what Bowman Gray is, right? You have the fans heckling you, saying whatever they want, saying you’re No. 1 in two different ways. That’s what Bowman Gray was built off of.

“Overall I would say it was successful, right? When fans are cheering and screaming, the drivers’ brands are being exposed to everybody, which is great, right? Everyone has a favorite or not. You’re passionate about it.

“When you get everyone this close, you look at yesterday (Saturday), people hung out for the modified race all the way until the practice through the heat races. It was packed yesterday. Tonight was standing room only.

“From that standpoint, the atmosphere was successful.”

Logano’s Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, who charged from a provisional starting position in the 23-car field to race runner-up, agreed.

“Yeah, I agree, with Joey. From the crowd yesterday who hung out for three hours from the modifieds till we first got on track. That’s a lot of commitment. A lot of energy on the frontstretch before we got going there. That’s what it’s all about.

“It was neat when you do (driver) intros on the frontstretch, the fans are right there. It was neat to hear them cheering, supporting you. There’s not a lot of places we go where they’re that close and that passionate.

“For whatever reason, everyone wants to have their opinion heard here that’s in the stands, which is awesome to me. Good or bad, it’s awesome that they’re there and they’re wanting to interact. That is a hardcore race fan.”

Logano noted that fan engagement in NASCAR is different from other sports.

“We have such a unique sport because when you go to a basketball game, there’s a home team. The majority roots for one team, right? In our sport, there’s 40 of us out there. It’s pretty wild to see the differences. All that’s displayed on the driver intros.

“As long as they’re making noise, they make noise for me, it’s good, they make it both ways, but they make noise, and it’s good.”

Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 Leidos Toyota walks the grid prior to practice for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace finished fifth at Bowman Gray, a track he raced regularly early in his career. He, too, noted the ambience during the weekend.

“I did. I thought NASCAR did a good job of making a show, which is exactly what they wanted for all this. I think the pre-race stuff was really fun. I thought the fans were engaged. It was good. It was good from start to finish.”

Wallace gave the event a thumbs up for another, albeit, personal reason.

“The best thing about it is most of us got a 45-minute drive back home. Not stay in L.A., fly six hours. All in all it was a good weekend.”

NASCAR hasn’t indicated whether the Clash will return to Bowman Gray Stadium in 2026 or go to another location. Blaney felt it would be an easy decision to return again next year.

“Really, really cool to be here. I’m happy that it was a good show for everybody. Looking forward to hopefully coming back next year. I don’t see why you wouldn’t come back. Hope everyone had a good time.”

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet and Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Great Lakes Flooring Ford race during the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Sunday night. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Race winner Elliott wouldn’t mind returning next year, either.

“I don’t have any issue with coming back. Like I said, overall it seemed like a good show. The tire wear came into play. The environment from not only tonight but last night, the place was packed out. Just seemed like a good all-around event.

"I just feel like if we’re going to race on a football field, this is probably as good of a place as any to do it.”

While not explicitly advocating for a return to Bowman Gray Stadium next year, third-place finisher Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing says he’ll go wherever NASCAR schedules next year’s race.

“I mean, in no way would I want to minimize kind of the weekend that was. I think certainly I don’t want to say this wasn’t good enough. They took a facility here that’s been around for a long time and made it feel like a brand-new one. The fans obviously were very, very excited to see us. They were enthusiastic. We feed into that. It felt like a big event. Even though it’s not a points paying event or anything like that, it still feels big.

“You want to go wherever can give you that feel and atmosphere. There’s surely bigger venues and bigger cities to go to, but will you have this type of feel or not? That’s really what matters.”