NASCAR Bowman Gray Clash format, schedule, TV and entry list

NASCAR: Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum — Credit: Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images

For the 46th year in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series will begin its season with the non-points Clash but this time takes the event close to home at venerable Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

It’s the first time the Cup Series has raced at its oldest continually operating short track since the 1971 Winston Cup season. NASCAR has raced in some form at the home of the Winston-Salem State University since 1949.

They call it a ‘NASCAR original’ and ‘The Most Exciting of Them All.’

The Clash was held at Daytona International Speedway from 1979 to 2020 as a precursor to the Daytona 500 and then moved to the infield road course most commonly used during the Rolex 24 in 2021. It was taken to a temporary quarter mile inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022-to-2024 and having proven that the seventh-generation car could race on a track that small, NASCAR then decided to take the race back to the sport’s roots at Bowman Gray.

Why that track, by the way?

Beyond the cheaper proximity to where all the teams are stationed in the Charlotte area, the Greensboro and Winston-Salem television market is also the strongest for NASCAR. More people watch NASCAR races on TV in that market than any other and this audience has been rewarded with its first Cup Series race in 46 years.

Also Read:
The new NASCAR season is upon us and there’s a lot to talk about

Who is in the race?

Unlike previous versions of The Clash while at Daytona, which was an invitational event, this version is open to any entry whatsoever but only 23 cars will make the 200-lap main event on Sunday.

More on that in a moment, but first the entry list, featuring a lot new driver and team combinations.

What is the format?

There are 39 driver and car combinations on the entry list, but again, only 23 make the main event.

The drivers have been split into three practice groups for Saturday afternoon and each group gets two eight-minute sessions to dial-in their setups. Then, each group will be split into two groups for one final four-minute session in which the fastest times from each driver will serve as their qualifying lap that sets the lineups for heat races that begin setting the field for the main event.

There will be four heat races on Saturday, three with 10 cars and one with 9 cars, and each race is 25 laps each. The fastest car from the qualifying session will be on the pole for the first race, second-fastest on pole for the second heat, so on and so forth.

Only green flag laps will count and there will be no overtime.

The top five finishers from each of the four heat races advance to the Saturday night main event. Those who did not make the main event from the Saturday night heat races will then try to make the race via the 75 lap Last Chance Race, in which only the top two finishers become the 21st and 22nd starters.

23rd will go to the driver highest in points from last year that has not already qualified into the field.

As for the main event, the race will be 200 laps and only green flag laps count. Simply stated, caution laps do NOT count. There will be a halftime break after Lap 100.

Bowman Gray doesn’t have a pit road so there are no put stop and teams will work on their cars in the garage area.