
Welcome to the 77th NASCAR Cup Series season.
Before the points paying portion of the campaign begins with the Daytona 500 in a couple of weeks, everyone is set to shake off the rust with the preseason Clash, now called the ‘Cook Out Clash’ and in its first season at venerable Bowman Gray Stadium after a three-year stint at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Of course, this is also the same event that was previously contested at Daytona from 1979 to 2020 and then on the Daytona Road Course in 2021. If you need a reminder, by the way, why we don’t run an extra pointless superspeedway race these days, refresh your memory with this.
And yet, there are people who want to go back to running race cars through a figurative blender on the high banks. At the same time, there has been some forward-thinking commentary about the recent state of the event, too.
For example, three-time and defending champion Joey Logano likes how the slot on the schedule has been utilized.
“I think it always draw up a little bit more excitement and people talk about it more when it’s something new,” said Logano. “Fans are like, ‘what are we going to see at Bowman Gray? I don’t know.’ When we went to L.A. the first time, remember all the talk of what that race was going to be like and no one had a clue? It draws up a lot of hype, which is good, and you’re also bringing it to the race fan.”
To wit, Logano liked that the Los Angeles Coliseum Clash because it didn’t require interest non-fans to have to travel an hour-plus out of their way.
“These days, it’s hard to do that, so I think moving our races around, going to our race fans is great,” Logano said. “When you look at what Winston-Salem is to our sport, and that whole region, we all see the numbers and there are a lot of NASCAR fans there, a ton of them, and so going to our race fans is kind of going back to grassroots up there, but it’s also cool that we’re giving race fans that might not have been able to go to other races an opportunity to see a race.
“Whether that’s in Winston-Salem or in L.A. or name a city, I think moving it around is cool because it gives people opportunity.”
Echoing that sentiment, Ryan Preece says Winston-Salem supports Bowman Gray and this is a reward to a fanbase that loves their local track wholeheartedly. It’s also worth mentioning that the Greensboro and Winston-Salem television market is NASCAR’s most supportive.
“For anybody that’s never been to that racetrack on their typical weekly show, the place is jammed,” Preece said. “It’s packed. It’s a wanted racetrack in the community, so anytime that you can go to a place that loves racing and supports the racetrack, that’s awesome because, to be honest with you, for the twenty-plus drivers that start that race on Sunday, the energy that they’re going to see from that community and people that are there, even though it’s probably going to be 42 degrees or whatever it is, it’s going to be packed and it’s going to be awesome.”
But if it’s time to move the race again, Preece does want to go to back to Volusia County, Florida but not Daytona Beach.
“If I was going to say there’s somewhere that would be really cool to kick off Speedweeks or basically Speed Month when it comes to racing in February all the way through, is New Smyrna,” Preece said.
New Smyrna Speedway hosts a week-plus of short track racing every February alongside the racing at the big track for a variety of tours and divisions and Preece wants to add the Cup Series to that rotation.
“If they are going to leave Bowman Gray Stadium and they were looking for another venue, New Smyrna, to me, seems like such a perfect fit when it comes to the racing, the way to kick off Speedweeks for the Super Late Models or Tour Type Modifieds and with all the dirt racing going on 45 minutes down the road … That, to me, would be the track that would make the most sense.”
Christopher Bell is an advocate of schedule diversity in general.
“I love that concept and I love the diversification of the NASCAR schedule,” Bell said. “I think Mexico is an awesome addition. Nashville was an awesome addition. So anytime that we can continue to get new tracks, Chicago as well but I would like to get to a point to where we just go to each track once a year.
“I think that just helps create excitement and helps make every race feel like an event. I’m glad that the days of going to Pocono twice in a month and going to Michigan twice within two months are behind us. I would love to see more new tracks on the schedule and just go to different places. I think that’s super important.”
Playoff format talk
NASCAR sent a letter to drivers saying they will do their due diligence over making changes to the championship format in advance of the 2026 season.
“It’s important to note this is not a guarantee that we’ll change anything but we owe it to the sport and our fans to explore the potential.”
This winter long debate was the result of Logano winning his third championship but doing it with a season long body of work that was statistically the least impressive in NASCAR history. He won four times, not even including the non-points All Star Race, but also the first champion to have finished 15th or worst in the regular season standings.
Logano strategically won his way through the rounds to win the championship at Phoenix, his second in three years and third in seven years.
“I personally don’t expect changes and did not expect changes only because I feel like our playoff system is very entertaining and it also takes a lot to get through those 10 races to win the championship,” Logano said. “I know it’s hard to compare to other sports because we’re a unique sport and we’re our own, but there is comparisons that you can draw to the NBA, the NFL, plenty of others as well and their playoff systems – the regular seasons they have versus the playoff runs that they have. Their seasons are long as well and ours is too and you can go up and down throughout all that, but when the playoffs start a lot of times you see teams that fire up and we’ve been one of those teams, thankfully, and it’s worked out for us through time.
“I don’t think that means you have to change the playoff system. I think if you look at the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series, which that’s the same playoff system with just minor tweaks because of the fuel size, it’s really fun to watch as a race fan. Myself as a fan, not as a competitor, without a horse in the race in those races I find myself glued to the TV watching the races. Personally, and everyone has their own opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I like it.”
Alex Bowman expected a change might have been imminent but also understands why it didn’t happen.
“There was obviously a lot of talk around it at the end of last season, right, and all that bad talk led to people expecting something,” Bowman said. “But I also understand them wanting to really evaluate and not make small changes just for the sake of making changes. I look forward to what the future brings but this year will be business as usual.”
Christopher Bell has historically endorsed the playoff format but changed his tune pretty dramatically after his elimination at Martinsville in November.
Now that he’s less emotional about it, he’s come back around.
“I’ve always said that I love the playoff format and I love that it creates pressure and it makes every race more important than the last race all the way up until the championship event,” Bel said. “You can’t take any weeks off.
“I think my playoff stretch really emphasized that because we had an absolutely incredible playoff stretch and the one ace that ended up not being a good one was Martinsville and that’s the one that got us eliminated.
“I love the fact that the pressure is there. I was clearly disappointed with what went down at Martinsville but I think the playoff format itself is fine and it’s the same for everybody. So yeah, I’ll play by the rules that NASCAR puts in place.”
As for Logano, he can’t hear the critics.
“To be honest with you, I can’t hear well because my trophies, they kind of echo around me, so I can’t hear that,” Logano said. “It’s kind of crazy.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.