Richard Petty’s son explores the NASCAR roots at Bowman Gray Stadium including The King’s 100th win 

NASCAR legend Richard Petty's son Kyle Petty shared the history of the sport's first weekend track at Bowman Gray Stadium. The Cup Series pre-season race, Cook Out Clash will be at the short track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the first time in more than 50 years this Sunday.

Bowman Gray Stadium is meaningful for the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard, who won his 100th race there in 1969. However, the stadium is also considered the birthplace of NASCAR dating back to 1949. In a video on X, Kyle talked about the NASCAR greats who raced at the quarter-mile asphalt oval.

"The Wood Brother's...they started here. Billy and Bobby Myers, the Myers Brothers Award is named after them, pioneers in the sport. Richard Childress sold peanuts and popcorn in the stands here. He went on to be Dale Earnhardt’s owner and the champion owner at that in the Cup Series. And Richard Petty won his 100th race here. There is so much history in this place," Kyle said.

The Clash on February 2 will feature 23 drivers, including Tim Brown, a local driver with 101 wins and 12 track championships at Bowman Gray. Brown, 53, will return to NASCAR for the Cup Series exhibition race with Rick Ware Racing.

NASCAR also brought back tracks North Wilkesboro, for the NASCAR All-Star Race in 2023 and Rockingham for the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series races during Easter Weekend this season.

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"Nobody really dominated" - Richard Petty reflected on the 'Mad House'

Richard Petty raced at Bowman Gray Stadium from the late 1950s until 1971, when NASCAR held its last race there. He won four races at the track. Petty talked about racing at the rough "Mad House" track and said (via WXLV-T):

"The racecars back then would get beat up pretty bad. You’d go to Bowman Gray and a lot of the cars would already have bent fenders. You’d get ready for Charlotte or Daytona and you’d have to beat the fenders out." (00:24).

"Nobody really dominated. When you went, these four or five were going to win the race, but which of them you don’t know. That’s what kept people coming back." (00:40)

Petty's famous number 43 car driver, Eric Jones will race at Bowman Gray for the first time this weekend. The main 200-lap race will start at 8 pm ET on Sunday with practice sessions on Saturday, which will determine race lineups.

Around 15,000 fans are expected in attendance for the sold-out race with 13,000 for Saturday’s events.