
That was a very Bowman Gray night at the races for the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday night.
Over the course of two practice sessions, a group qualifying session and four heat races, the top-20 starters for the Cook Out Clash have been decided. But there are still technically three more starting spots up for grabs between 19 drivers prior to the 200-lap main event on Sunday night.
But first, the day began with a press conference featuring Tim Brown, the 53-year-old winningest driver in the history of the Winston-Salem bullring who is also making his Cup Series debut this weekend for Rick Ware Racing.
He was asked if fighting is a prerequisite for racing at ‘The Stadium.’
“You might as well say yes,” Brown said. “I mean, let’s be real. If you race here for thirty some years, you’re going to fight.”
Those who were here just thirty some hours on Saturday were ready to fight after the heat races that decided whether or not a driver was locked into the main event or having to duel it out on Sunday in a last chance qualifier.
Let’s set the stage for a moment:
There were four heat races, each one featuring 10 drivers, and you had to finish in the top-five to automatically qualify for the main event. Everyone who did not accomplish that goal will be one of 19 drivers seeking the last two spots in the 75-lap last chance race.
Kyle Larson is one of those drivers!
With the exception of Ryan Blaney, who knows he has a provisional to fall back on, being in that race most likely means going home early.
It’s just math.
There is just going to be so much chaos in the LCQ, which is why there was so much chaos in the heat races simply trying to avoid being relegated in the first place. That’s what created the kind of drama associated with Bowman Gray Stadium on Saturday night.
Heat Race 1
Take the first heat race in which Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry were all just generally peeved with each other. Dillon was also peeved at himself for spinning out due to clipping a storm drainage.
NASCAR had to warn Kyle Busch for repeatedly tailgating Haley under caution after their incident. Race control told the two-time champion to cut it out.
It was just an intense position to be in and they were all in the hornet’s nest.
Afterwards, Berry and Dillon at least had a chance to talk about it and the former called it ‘rough’ out there.
Allmendinger, Custer
Seven laps in the final heat, AJ Allmedinger squeezed Cole Custer into the wall while racing for the transfer, damaging both of their cars and leaving the two to have a conversation afterwards.
Allmendinger did not comment but Custer did and didn’t mince words.
“Yeah I mean, I’m okay with letting it go just because how much of a mess this really is,” Custer said of racing at Bowman Gray. “But I told him if it happens in the future you know, it’s going to be a major problem, obviously. We’ll see how, we’ll just go on to the next one.”
Preece, Nemechek
On the ensuing restart after the Custer, Allmendinger incident, John Hunter Nemechek shoved Ryan Preece up the track in Turn 1. The retaliation sent the Legacy Motor Club No. 42 into the wall hard and out of the race.
Preece went onto to say that bullring racing is about respect.
“If you race With respect, you get respect back,” he said.
Is this what happened here?
“That was hard racing,” he said.
Anything else?
“That’s all you’re going to get out of me.”
Nemechek declined to talk about the incident. NASCAR is going to let Legacy Motor Club into the track early tomorrow to repair the rear end housing of their car before Nemechek has to attempt to race his way in from the back.
There was all sort of tension throughout the field too.
Zane Smith missed the cut because he said Daniel Suarez ‘used me up,’ and that ‘I didn’t have enough time to get back to him’ when the race stayed green.
He also conceded, ‘that’s just what this place is,’ and there will be more of it on Sunday too.
So what now?

For now, these 20 drivers locked themselves into the race and don’t have to worry about any theatrics until the main event.’
- Chase Elliott
- Chris Buescher
- Denny Hamlin
- Tyler Reddick
- Brad Keselowski
- Chase Briscoe
- Joey Logano
- Christopher Bell
- Noah Gragson
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- William Byron
- Ryan Preece
- Kyle Busch
- Bubba Wallace
- Carson Hocevar
- Austin Cindric
- Ross Chastan
- Daniel Suarez
- Alex Bowman
- Todd Gilliland
Elliott and Buescher will start on the front row and are thrilled about being ahead of the early chaos behind them.
“It’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row,” Elliott said. “I mean, I think the first couple rows certainly have a massive advantage on the rest of the field. Obviously, anything can happen. I’ve been doing this and y’all have been watching long enough to know that anything can happen.
“I’m well aware of that, but I think just in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever, I certainly would want be on the first couple rows and fortunately we are so we’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Buescher says their respite from the drama will last only until they reach the back of the field.
“It’s just going to set you up to get going right from the get go, right,” Buescher said. “We’re going to get to the back of the field in 15 laps, maybe less. So we’re always going to be in traffic of some sort and just having that little bit of gap behind you, breathing room, will put you in a better spot to not be a ping pong ball.
“In that first heat, there were a lot of innocent bystanders getting spun out just from check-ups and the fact that it gets so tight and congested out there. Being out front is definitely the place to be and we’re there from the get-go.”
Last chance race
Then there is the race to set the two final spots.
Again, Blaney is in even if he doesn’t reach the top-two. If he does, then he advances that way and the provisional falls to the next highest driver in points to have not raced their way into the show. That would be Larson.
If Blaney and Larson race their way in by finishing first and second, the provisional would then fall to Ty Gibbs.
That race will line up like this:
- Ty Dillon
- Zane Smith
- Ty Gibbs
- Michael McDowell
- Austin Dillon
- Erik Jones
- Riley Herbst
- AJ Allmendinger
- Justin Haley
- Kyle Larson
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Josh Berry
- Cody Ware
- Burt Myers
- Cole Custer
- Ryan Blaney
- Garrett Smithley
- Tim Brown