About Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium
| Event Name | Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium |
| Location | Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
| Capacity | 17,000 |
| Owner | City of Winston-Salem |
| Operator | National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC |
| Opened | 1937 |
| Major events | NASCAR Cup Series |
Cook Out Clash will be the new pre-season event for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum has been replaced with Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium. The race is going to be a non-points paying event and an exhibition race which will only feature 23 cars pre-season. The Cook Out Clash would be the first feature race of the season. The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series will have two non-point paying feature races, as per NASCAR’s official website.
The race used to be an invitation-only event but features a qualifying session like the other NASCAR Cup Series races, as of January 2025. The initial qualifying session decides the top-16 drivers. These top-16 drivers are selected from the highest finishing four drivers in the four heat races of 25 laps each. There is a 50-lap Last Qualifying Session which determines the remaining 10 drivers for the race. The 23rd driver competing in the Cook Out Clash will be determined from the highest finishing driver in the 2024 Cup Series season who has not advanced after the qualifying sessions. Furthermore, the feature race will only include green flagged laps, as per NASCAR’s official website.
The Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium is going to be the first instance of the race. Earlier, it was a feature race hosted at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum sponsored by Anheuser-Busch. The NASCAR feature race made its first appearance on the NASCAR calendar in 1979. It was introduced by Monty Roberts as a way to promote his brand, Busch Beer.
The initial setup of the race was a 50-mile sprint with no pit stops involving the fastest drivers from the previous NASCAR Cup Series season. The initial venue of the race was the Daytona International Speedway. The race venue remained the same until the 2022 season of the Cup Series. The previous winner of the Cook Out Clash, known as the Busch Light Clash, is Denny Hamlin who won the race for Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2024 Cup Series season.
Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium 2025 Schedule
The Cook Out Clash in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series will be held on February 2, 2025, from 8:00 PM Eastern Time, as reported by NASCAR’s official website. The timings for the qualifying session of the race have not been revealed, as of January 23, 2025. As mentioned on NASCAR's website, the Cook Out Clash is going to be a 200-lap event contested over 50.6 miles.
Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium 2025 Venue
The Cook Out Clash 2025 in the NASCAR Cup Series will be held at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston- Salem, North Carolina. The circuit is 0.25 miles long, paved oval. It is characterised as a short track by NASCAR officials. The Bowman Gray Stadium is credited as the longest running NASCAR weekly track. It previously held a Cup Series race- Myers Brothers 250 from 1958 to 1971. The circuit lap record is held by Tim Brown. Brown clocked in a time of 0:12.965 in 2016 in the Modified Division, while racing for Team 83.
The Cook Out Clash 2025 is the first instance of the replacement feature race in the NASCAR Cup Series for the Busch Light Clash. In the history of the Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt has earned the most victories in the feature race with six wins to his name. Denny Hamlin who has four wins in the feature race is the second most successful driver in the history of the race and most successful active driver in the 2025 Cup Series. Joe Gibbs Racing is the team with the most wins in the feature race, collecting 12 wins over the years in the history of the race.
Where to watch the Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium 2025?
FOX will be handling the broadcasting of the race, as mentioned on the official NASCAR website. MRN and SiriusXM will be handling the radio coverage of the race for the 2025 season.
Cook Out Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium 2025 start time in different time zones
Greenwich Mean Time: Monday 3rd February, 1:00 AM
Pacific Time: Sunday 2nd February, 5:00 PM
Japanese Time: Monday 3rd February, 10:00 AM
Indian Standard Time: Monday 3rd February, 6:30 AM
FAQs on Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium
A. The Clash will be a 200 lap event and only green-flagged laps will be counted. There will be a break around halfway point and the race must end under green.
A. Denny Hamlin is the winner of the 2024 Clash.
A. FOX will broadcast the NASCAR Clash on Fox Sports 1.
A. Joey Logan won the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024.
A. The NASCAR Clash is a non-championship exhibition race.
A. The Cook Out Clash will be contested over 200 laps for a total distance of 50 miles.
