A big race at a small track ahead of the start of the Daytona 500 could be a preview of a promising season from NASCAR’s most popular driver.
When NASCAR changed the format of the pre-season Clash for the 2022 season, many were excited about the sport returning to its short track roots. However, the venue itself – the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – was anything but traditional. Once the host to the Summer Olympics and the USC Trojans football team, NASCAR spent a ton of money to turn the field into an asphalt bullring each year from 2022 to 2024.
This year, the Clash moved once again, but not back to Daytona. Instead, they retained that same traditional short track formula, but at a true traditional short track: Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Bowman Gray Stadium has hosted weekly racing events for decades, and even hosted NASCAR Cup Series races from 1958 through 1971. Incidentally, its infield is also host to a college football team, the Winston-Salem State University Rams.
Even though Bowman Gray Stadium hadn’t hosted a Cup series event since the early 1970s, there’s been plenty of racing action every week. The rough-and-tumble nature of this quarter mile oval has helped Bowman Gray to earn its nickname, “The Madhouse.” We’ve all seen clips of dramatic late-race moves, culminating in intentional contact between cars – and their drivers, in some cases. I’ve heard at least one local rehash the classic joke “I went to a fight at Bowman Gray and a race broke out.” To add some excitement and local flavor to the event, modified legends Tim Brown and Burt Myers were added to the entry list. Brown and Myers are two of the winningest drivers in the history of Bowman Gray Stadium racing.
Beatin’ and Bangin’ at Bowman
Admittedly, we didn’t expect to see any real knock down, drag-out fights this past weekend. These guys are professionals, and it was a pre-season exhibition race. Regardless, fenders were mangled and tempers did flare, even in the qualifying races. To everyone’s surprise, big names like Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs both found themselves in the Last Chance Qualifier before the main event on Sunday. Larson advanced; however, Gibbs did not. That was due to a tangle with Justin Haley – which Gibbs clearly took umbrage with, hitting him intentionally and sending his own car airborne. This dramatic retaliation is expected to get him a stern talking-to by NASCAR, as well as his car owner and grandfather Coach Joe Gibbs.
A non-factor in that Last Chance Qualifier was previous Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who hung around the back far off the pace. Using a provisional to gain entry into the main race, he surprised everyone by storming from dead last to second place, mere tenths of a second from catching eventual winner Chase Elliott. While that would have been the ultimate Cinderella story of the night, fans of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver found little to complain about. Elliott survived charges from Denny Hamlin and even his own Hendrick Motorsports teammates en route to victory. Is this the start of a return to form for Elliott? We’ll find out when the season starts proper at Daytona on February 16.
Photos: Aidan Blake, RaceProWeekly
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