'I think is really, really important' — Dale Earnhardt Jr. credits Bowman Gray Clash in supporting NASCAR's 'most important event' Daytona 500

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently shared his thoughts on the Cook Out Clash's success ahead of the Daytona 500. NASCAR returned to the Bowman Gray Stadium with the Cup Series for the first time since 1971 with the season-opening exhibition event.

For the last three years, The Clash was hosted by the LA Coliseum. But after its recent comeback to the Winston-Salem short track, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes NASCAR has pulled off the perfect move before their biggest event of the year.

Recently speaking on his podcast 'Dale JR Download', Earnhardt Jr. spoke about his experience of the weekend. He claimed the TV package by FOX Sports for the heat races on Saturday and the main event on Sunday was "perfect".

Earnhardt said that even though the Clash was held at Bowman Gray, he had memories of speed weeks at the Florida racetrack, a feeling he "kind of missed". He described:

"As we've shortened up the schedule of Daytona, it was a lot, there was over 10 hours-12 hours of Cup practice throughout the whole process. It was a bit unnecessary but it also served a purpose that sort of teased and let up and build up the expectation and the excitement around the Daytona 500. I felt like the Clash really, really went back to supporting our most important event and that's the Daytona 500. This Bowman Gray weekend, as exciting as it was, made me look forward to the Daytona 500 even more so, which I think is really, really important in the grand scheme of things." [6:50 onwards]

The Teardown's Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi also praised the Clash just like Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Speaking recently on the Teardown Podcast, NASCAR Insiders Gluck and Bianchi applauded the success of the Clash at Bowman Gray. Bianchi deemed the event as "a homerun" by the sport.

Bianchi mentioned that heading into the weekend, there were a lot of questions regarding how it would work, how the logistics and racing would be, and so on. However, after the event, he said everyone only had one verdict of the Clash.

"Across the board from everyone I've talked to, from what I witnessed, this was a home run weekend. It was an electric crowd. It was a fun crowd. It was spirited. The racing was good," Bianchi said. [1:14 onwards]

Bianchi's sentiment was also seconded by his co-host Jeff Gluck on the Teardown. Gluck remarked that the hype for the Clash at Bowman Gray wasn't all that high before the weekend.

But as the event got underway, things began to change, as Gluck spoke about the added factors fans brought to the races. He said that based on his experience, the fans at Bowman Gray were "hardcore NASCAR fans".