"My hope is that we don't do it again": Kevin Harvick cautions NASCAR against repeating the Coliseum mistake at Bowman Gray

Kevin Harvick recently shared his take on NASCAR putting the season-opening Clash for 2025 at Bowman Gray Stadium. The racetrack holds a special place in the sport's history. After it was acquired in 1949 by NASCAR owners, it hosted weekly races, including Cup races from 1958 to 1971.

And because of the level of history involved with Bowman Gray, Kevin Harvick hoped that NASCAR wouldn't repeat the pattern of the Coliseum. In September 2021, it was announced that the Clash would be taken away from Daytona, which had hosted it from 1971 to 2021, to the historic LA Coliseum.

The stadium which would temporarily be turned into a racetrack for the season-opener, held the event thrice, from 2022 to 2024.

This was exactly what Harvick didn't wish for NASCAR to do with the Clash at Bowman Gray. Sharing his thoughts on the same on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, he said:

"I think the event being in Bowman Gray where they used to race Cup cars in the late 50s up until the 70s and all the history and nostalgia that goes in the Bowman Gray stadium, those fans are rabid. Being able to go to a racetrack that has such a historic place in our sport but also such a historic place on a weekly basis from a weekly racing standpoint, just adds more to the mystique of Bowman Gray. My hope is that we don't do it again. And if we do it again it's in another 10 or 15 years. I really would love to see us get to a point where we go to places like this and just show up and we race and we put on a spectacular show and everybody's talking about it until the next time that you show back up there. I hope we don't overdo it like we did at the Coliseum."

It's worth mentioning that earlier this year, when NASCAR acquired Bowman Gray, Kyle Busch expressed his thoughts on a potential race on the track in the future. Busch claimed that he had never seen a good race at Bowman Gray, but at the same time, he understood why NASCAR would want to host a race there.

"We're in the entertainment business and the more calamity and chaos we can have the better," Busch said.

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NASCAR is celebrating its history while also moving the schedule in a new direction, as per Ben Kennedy

NASCAR's current Executive Vice President, Ben Kennedy, was present at Bowman Gray to announce its comeback on the schedule as the Clash host. Kennedy claimed, as per Sportsnaut, that the sport is celebrating its history while also moving forward with the recent notable additions to the schedule.

“It’s a celebration of history and the evolution of our schedule in that we are going to places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and some major metropolitan markets with different track concepts that we’ve never done before," he said.

But Kennedy also pointed to having the opportunity to celebrate the sport's roots by taking the All-Star race to North Wilkesboro. He claimed that the Clash at Bowman Gray would be another example of such a celebration of the past and the future.

He reassured that the racing product at the Madhouse would feel the way it has for the "past several decades", and having Bowman Gray on NASCAR's schedule will be "an important part" of their mission.