By james art 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The 2025 NASCAR season begins with a return to the sport’s roots with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
NASCAR Cup Series’ 2025 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium
- Practices/Qualifications: 6:00 p.m. Saturday (all times Eastern) on FS1
- Hit races (4) start at 8:30 p.m. Saturday (TV: FS1)
- Last qualifier: 6:00 p.m. Sunday (TV: FOX)
- Cook Out Clash: 8pm Sunday (TV: FOX)
After three years of holding The Clash on a makeshift quarter-mile track at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, The Clash is on a permanent quarter-mile track at historic Bowman Gray Stadium.
The NASCAR Cup Series first raced at Bowman Gray Stadium on May 24, 1958. Bob Welborn won after taking the lead from Rex White with 49 laps to go in the 150-lap race.
After Bobby Allison took the most recent checkered flag in the NASCAR Cup Series at Bowman Gray Stadium on August 6, 1971, it took more than 53 years for NASCAR to officially recognize his victory.
Allison and Welborn are among 12 drivers to win a NASCAR Cup Series race at Bowman Gray Stadium:
- Rex White: 6 wins
- Glenn Wood, Junior Johnson, Richard Petty: 4 wins each
- David Pearson: 3 wins
- Bobby Allison: 2 wins
- Bob Welborn, Jim Paschal, Jim Reed, Johnny Allen, Lee Petty, Marvin Punch: 1 win each
Rex White, who turned 95 in August, is the oldest living NASCAR Cup Series champion. Bowman Gray Stadium, inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, was a cornerstone of White’s legacy. In 12 starts at the track, White amassed a 1.8 average and never finished worse than fourth.
Cook Out Clash drivers with Bowman Gray experience
When Allison crossed the finish line for the final Cup Series race to date at Bowman Gray Stadium, Tim Brown was just one month old and the only living Clash 2025 entrant at the time.
Tim Brown is the winningest modified driver at Bowman Gray Stadium (101 wins). When Brown isn’t racing Modifieds, he prepares cars at Rick Ware Racing for others to compete in the Cup Series.
This time, Brown will race the cup car he has prepared.
“I’ll be honest with you, when I turned 30, I kind of gave up on my lifelong dream of being a Cup driver, just because I had seen this transition where you either have to start young or have a lot of money to to pay an owner to let you drive,” Brown said. “Finally, when they announced The Clash would be at Bowman Gray, Rick [Ware] and Robbie [Benton] were the first to message me and say, “Hey, we’re going to make this happen.”
Brown isn’t the only local hero getting a chance to go up against the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series.
In the No. 50 AmeriVet Chevrolet is Burt Myers, the 11-time and defending Modified champion at Bowman Gray Stadium. Meyers will use a paint scheme similar to what he has often won with in modifieds.
Regular NASCAR Cup Series drivers with experience at Bowman Gray Stadium
Other drivers with experience at Bowman Gray Stadium include Ryan Preece. In 2013 Preece led all 199 laps and won the pole for the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race there.
In the same race, Myers and Brown finished second and fifth, respectively, in the 20-car field.
Further back, Cody Ware finished 13th after a crash ended his race after 163 laps.
Two years later, Preece also won the pole and finished second. Myers finished fourth that day.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA Menards Series East) visited Bowman Gray Stadium from 2011 to 2015, allowing eight other regular Cup drivers to race there, including two NASCAR Cup Series champions who raced together in 2012
In 2012 Kyle Larson finished fifth after winning the pole and leading 35 of 153 laps. Elliott finished sixth, improving from 18th the previous year.
Other Cup drivers with Bowman Gray experience include:
- Alex Bowman (finished 12th in 2011)
- William Byron (finished 15th in 2015 for current Trackhouse owner Justin Marks)
- Cole Custer (finished 10th in 2013 for Ken Schrader)
- Justin Haley (finished third in 2015)
- Daniel Suarez (finished 22nd in 2012, ninth in 2013, second in 2014)
- Bubba Wallace (finished sixth in 2011, second in 2012)
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Matt DiBenedetto won in 2011, while two-time Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes won in 2014. Ben Kennedy, the current senior vice president of race development and strategy, even took his turn in the 2013 victory after victory.
Other East winners included Corey LaJoie in 2012. and Scott Heckert in 2015.
Format for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium
The field will be divided into three training groups, with each group receiving three sessions. Each driver’s fastest lap time from the last practice session will determine the starting line-up for the heat races:
- The fastest qualifier will be on pole for the first race
- The second fastest gets the pole for the second race
- The third fastest gets the pole for the third race
- The fourth fastest gets the pole for the fourth heat race
The top five finishers from each 25-lap race will advance to the 200-lap Cook Out Clash.
The remaining drivers will have 75 laps to take The Clash through last chance qualifying. The top two finishers in the LCQ will advance to the Clash. The driver with the highest points in the 2024 Cup points standings, not locked in through the heat races and LCQs, will be awarded the final spot in the Clash.
Only green flag laps count in heat races and last-chance qualifying, so there are no overtimes in the game.
A total of 23 pilots will participate in the Clash. The clash is scheduled for 200 laps with half a break. Only green flag laps count and the race must finish under green. This means the leader must take the checkered flag for the race to be official. A caution can fly on the last lap and force a restart, unlike a typical Cup race where a last-lap caution ends the race.
Odds for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium
- Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson +700
- Ryan Blaney +850
- Joey Logano, William Byron, Kyle Busch +1000
- Ty Gibbs +1200
- Chase Briscoe +1400
- Brad Keselowski +1600
- Chase Elliott +1800
- Alex Bowman +2200
- Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon +2500
- Ross Chastain +2800
- Bubba Wallace +3300
- Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher +3500
- Tim Brown, Justin Haley +5000
- Austin Cindric +6000
- Burt Myers, Carson Hochevar +6500
- Michael McDowell +7500
- AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Cole Custer, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson +10,000
- Shane van Gisbergen, Ricky Stenhouse Jr +12500
- John Hunter Nemechek +20000
- Ty Dillon +25000
- Gareth Smitley, Cody Ware +50,000
Jonathan Feld is the co-owner of The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been working at TRE since 2010.
A native of Twin Valley, Minnesota, Feld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. He has since stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became co-owner and managing editor in 2023. and during that time has guided the site to tremendous growth.
Fjeld covered a wide range of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup season, NASCAR’s first National Series disqualification in more than 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win at Chicago, and Road America’s first Cup race in 66 years – as well as stories of future drivers and stories from inside the sport, such as the technology needed for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-level team.
He currently lives in Albuquerque, NM where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and reports on air. He enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at [email protected]