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Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick drew a contrast between the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Bowman Gray Stadium as the 2025 pre-season Clash concluded. The race was held in the Coliseum for the past three years before being shifted to the "Madhouse."
The 2025 Cook Out Clash was the first NASCAR event held at the Bowman Gray Stadium since 1971. The quarter-mile track witnessed intense action on its return. Although similar action could be witnessed at the LA Coliseum as well, Kevin Harvick drew an important difference between both tracks, mentioning how racing gets better at the Bowman Gray.
Speaking on the Happy Hour podcast, Harvick mentioned that the fans were well acquainted with the stadium and the track. Adding to the simplicity of the layout, he further mentioned that the track does not feature inside walls on the corners, which provides more intense racing because drivers don't have to worry about getting wrecked.
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"They know how to get in the track, they know how to get out of the track. We had a lot of new fans that were there. But, the racetrack is super simple, right? You go find your seat, they turn the cars on and the chaos starts," Kevin Harvick said (7:10 onwards)
"I think that the one thing that this racetrack at Bowman Gray had that the Coliseum was a little bit different in LA; the corners weren't as sharp. [They] didn't have that inside wall. When you pinch somebody down getting in the corner, it just ran them in the grass and they just continued on. They weren't worried about hitting that inside wall or being able to run that inside wall constantly to kind of fend you off," Harvick added (at 07:50).
Kevin Harvick discusses Bowman Gray's significance after the Clash
The Clash witnessed a major renovation of the Bowman Gray Stadium as it was equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and all the safety features required for a NASCAR Cup Series race. This helped in the stadium's much-required maintenance and the event generated enough revenue to maintain it further.
Kevin Harvick feels that the "Madhouse" (nicknamed because of the type of racing Bowman Gray offers) would be hard to forget considering how well the race was received by fans.
"I think if you have that exhibition event and you move it around like that, I think there's definitely something to moving it around. It'd be hard to take it away from Bowman Gray at this point because of the reaction to the fans and how good the racing was," Kevin Harvick said.
He further also explained that such exhibition races can be held on other short tracks as well because it would similarly help in the maintenance of those tracks as well.
"Think about all the places that you could affect across the country throughout the year, especially in season. If you had a spring series, summer series... whatever you wanted to do. I mean there's a million things you could do." [0:47]
Chase Elliott won this year's Clash. He started the race in pole position and despite losing the lead to Denny Hamlin, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was able to power back up and clinch the win.
