Chase Elliott wins a clash at Bowman Gray and now notices views of Daytona 500 – Pennlive

By Jenna Fryer, Associated Press

Winston-Salem, NC-NASCAR returned to its roots with a pre-conjunction exhibition without a fight at the Bowman Gray stadium and a popular win with Chase Elliott won the Sunday night clash.

Elliot won his Heat on Saturday night to start from the pole and essentially dominates the quarter -mile track, where the NASCAR CUP series last competed in 1971.

The NASCAR most popular driver won the clash for the first time in his career and joined his father as a winner in the unofficial opening season. Bill Elliot won the clash in 1987 and then put this victory in a win in Daytona 500 a week late.

Chase Elliot gets his chance to repeat his father’s dominance when NASCAR’s season officially opens February 16 at Daytona International Speedway.

“A great way to start the season and I can’t wait to get to Dayton,” Elliott said.

Clash is an event without points that took place on Daytona International Speedway from 1979 to 2021 as a warming act to Daytona 500. NASCAR came out of the box in 2022 and moved it across the country to the Memorial Colosseum in Los Angeles, who was who was Transformed into a temporary short song for three seasons.

NASCAR this year moved it to Bowman Gray when returning to Rassroots Racing. The CUP series was held at Bowman Gray from 1958 to 1971, and the stadium is already used for weekly local competitions and is the football field for the State University of Winston-Salem.

The runway is known for the inflamed temperaments and battles, but it went through two days of racing without a single quarrel.

Elliott led 172 of 200 laps in his Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports to win the event in front of a fansful crowd of 17,000 fans.

“Thank you all for going out,” Eliot told the crowd. “We all did a really cool environment for us. We do not compete in stadiums like this, so it’s just really cool and we appreciate that you are making the moment special for me and my team. I hope this was a good show for you. “

Kyle Larson and Josh Berry rushed to the collision earlier on Sunday night, going 1-2 in the crash-filled last chance, and Ryan Blaney won a place based on dots scored last season to finish the 23-shofer S

This year’s race celebrated the first Cup series race of Mecca of Madhouse, but did not produce the exploded temperaments that Bowman Gray regularly used to watch during the weekly competitions at local playgrounds.

But the event was still special.

Richard Childers welcomed only 15 minutes and as a young man the owner of the team of the Hall of Fame sold peanuts in the stands. He was on the stands on Sunday night, watching before the race started, he stopped at the Fox Sports stand to deliver peanuts and popcorn to the broadcast team.

“As a child, we jumped the fence and went in and sell peanuts and popcorn, then I would have been hanging with all the drivers of the races and had a devil of time,” said Childers. “I said,” Man, as fun as they are, I have to be a race driver. ” We will come here for battle and a race will break out. “

Blaina finished second in Ford for Team Penske and was followed by Danny Hamlin in Toyota for Joe Gibs Racing.

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