NASCAR ‘The Clash’ at rollicking Bowman Gray

Article posted by Coliseum, August 26^th, 2024

Image: NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Cup Series will return to the Bowman Gray Stadium (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US) next year revisiting a short track instrumental to its history for the season-opening Clash exhibition race.

‘NASCAR’ stated that the above announcement was made recently by Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice-President, Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer, during pre-race ceremonies at the historic quarter-mile oval in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (US) that his great-grandfather – NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr. – helped promote with the Founding Official Alvin Hawkins. Earlier this year, NASCAR took over the management of the Municipal stadium’s racing operations from the Hawkins family starting a new chapter for NASCAR’s longest-running weekly track.

Daytona Beach (US)-based the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), LLC is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports in America.

The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division.

The 17,000-capacity Bowman Gray Stadium is a NASCAR-sanctioned quarter-mile asphalt flat oval short track and longstanding football stadium located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (US). It is one of stock car racing’s most legendary venues and is referred to as “NASCAR’s longest-running weekly race track”.

‘NASCAR’ further stated that the non-points event is scheduled for February 2^nd, 2025 and will be broadcast live on FOX (American television broadcasting company). The Clash had been held the last three seasons at the 77,500-capacity Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California on a temporary quarter-mile track based on the design of the Bowman Gray’s flat asphalt that rings its football field. The stadium was used as a proving ground for NASCAR’s Next Gen car (common name for the race car that is currently in use in the NASCAR Cup Series) at such a track with a Goodyear tire test and feasibility study held in the months before the first running of The Clash in LA.

The Clash is an annual non-championship pre-season NASCAR Cup Series exhibition event held in February before the season-opening Daytona 500.

The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile-long NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida (US).

The 101,500-capacity Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about 50 mi North of Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event.

To commemorate the return to Bowman Gray, NASCAR Studios (the centralized hub for strategy, creation and distribution of best-in-class, on-demand content) and the FOX Sports Films are producing a one-hour documentary titled ‘The Madhouse: NASCAR’s Return to Bowman Gray Stadium’ that will premiere on Fox Sports 1 (FS1 –American pay television channel).

The film will explore the rich and rollicking history of the venue while weaving a narrative that focuses on preparations for The Clash in 2025. More details on the documentary, including when the fans will be able to watch on FS1, will be released at a later date.

Commented Kennedy, “We’re going back to The Madhouse in Bowman Gray Stadium. Bringing our Cup Series back there for the first time since the 1970s, it’s going to be another historic event. I’d say in a lot of ways this is going to be an opportunity to celebrate our roots, our history and celebrate our NASCAR regional series.”

The Bowman Gray Stadium hosted the Cup Series points events from 1958-171 and its list of winners is a collection of the NASCAR Hall of Famers – Richard and Lee Petty, David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Bobby Allison, Glen Wood, and Rex White, among them. Several current Cup Series drivers – including Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace – have competed in what is now called the ARCA Menards Series East. Kennedy savored a memorable victory in that circuit with his family at the stadium in 2013.

The ARCA Menards Series East is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racing Club of America and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The races are held at the oval tracks ranging from 1⁄3 to 1 mile in length and on two road courses 1.53 and 2.45 miles in length.

Toledo (US)-based the Automobile Racing Club of America is an auto racing sanctioning body in the United States founded in 1953 by John Marcum. A subsidiary of NASCAR since 2018, the current President of ARCA is Ron Drager who took over the position in 1996 following the death of Bob Loga.

The Bowman Gray Stadium has long held a special place in the France family’s collective hearts. The track has held weekly NASCAR events since the 1949 season, the same year the NASCAR Cup Series launched as the Strictly Stock division. The former NASCAR President Bill France Jr. met his future wife Betty Jane Zachary at the stadium in 1957. The NASCAR executives Jim France and Lesa France Kennedy were on hand back in 2013 to cheer Ben Kennedy’s triumph at the quarter-mile oval.

That same year, Ryan Preece won a race for the former NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour at Bowman Gray. The driver of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 41 Ford described the stadium’s atmosphere as “wild”, a nod to the energetic crowd that fills the horseshoe-shaped bleachers each week in the Spring and Summer for racing in four divisions, including the featured Modifieds. The track has earned the nickname ‘Madhouse’ as much for its enduring ‘Madhouse Scramble’ lineup format as the rowdy setting.

Preece said earlier this year at NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race, “It’s the East Coast version of what they made at LA, so I’m all for it. I’m all for going to short tracks. I think it’s all about doing something different. As far as the fans being around there, all the way around the stadium, it’d be cool.”

The stadium is familiar with Wintertime events in either NASCAR’s traditional preseason or offseason. For years, the Bowman Gray hosted ‘Tobacco Bowl’ modified and sportsman events near the New Year’s holiday.

The Clash was introduced in 1979 as a non-points invitational at the Daytona International Speedway for the Cup Series’ pole winners from the previous season. The event has evolved through the years but served as the host of the unofficial stock-car kickoff to Daytona’s Speedweeks up until the first Los Angeles event in 2022.

Concluded Kennedy, “This is the next evolution of The Clash for us. One of the areas where we feel like there’s an opportunity for us to continue to switch it up and go to the new markets and the new venues is an exhibition race like The Clash.”

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