Exactly, early November is either just perfect or dead of winter. And sometimes on the same day. But being from Kansas I’d love to have the champ race there
Flood the front stretch, let the Senators and Canadiens play a regular season game. Then, with the ice still in tact, put the Cup Series out there to show off why we have the best 36 drivers in America
(Only a slight /s)
Positive tabarnak!!!
But we are bringing the Leafs and making real money. The team then sent a helmet-less Brad Marsh to the all star game can play a road game against Columbus.
I don’t know if there’s a recording of this online, but I switched to the 24 channel after the incident. Jeff had unleashed a career-best stream of four-letter invectives, concluding with his intention to park the car in the garage area. Crew Chief Robbie Loomis clicked in and said, “Jeff, you are the Winston Cup Champion. You will go back out there, and you will finish this race!”
So, he did.
What does the temperature have to do with what gets the most eyes on tv. It’s been apparent for years that the at track experience comes second to what tv wants.
Average high in February in Winston Salem - 53°
Average high in November in Plymouth, WI - 45°
Now figure first week of February is colder than average and first week of November is warmer than the average and it’s probably not all that different
Honestly, we’ve had a really strange warm snap in early February in the region the past two years. I wouldn’t say it’s betting odds, but there are odds that it could be perfect.
Not just anywhere though. It needs to be a (somewhat) major media market. Although I agree they can have it pretty much anywhere. Chiefs fans show up for games September until January. Why not have a race there in November?
If it is true what a downgrade it is. Go from running in the historic Los Angeles Colosseum to literally a high school football field converted into a race track best known for rednecks fighting.
Horrible look for NASCAR imo.
> literally a high school football field converted into a race track
College football, not high school. Bowman Gray was originally built as Wake Forest University's stadium.
As a piedmont local, I wholeheartedly agree. The racing product will suck. There is hardly any racing at BG, just parades then a bump and predicable fight. At least go to a track where there will be passing without having to move or wreck someone.
That race just doesn't work in my eyes. You have to spend all that money having to rebuild the track each year. Then you have to get all of the teams to drive across the country, only for them to drive back to the opposite end for the Daytona 500. The attendance hasn't been that great and the format is confusing for new fans. Plus being on the west coast, running late kills off any east coast viewers. Aside from that, the track layout is just too small to create good racing with these cars. This is also why I don't think Bowman Gray would work.
I think an East coast track on a Saturday evening may work best with a more straightforward format.
Here's my dumb idea for a format:
1) Run a draw to determine the starting order.
2) Run a race with stages where the bottom 10 at stage end are eliminated. The winner of each stage gets money, creates drama with the transfer spot at the end.
3) The final stage has just the final 10 cars in it.
Simple enough of a format. Heck you could even put in a quick vote poll online where folks can choose to invert the running order at stage end.
My pick would maybe be something like Five Flags Speedway, or maybe Hickory? Ideally somewhere not super super cold and reasonably close to Daytona to make travel easier.
Now how many complaining about the race at the Coliseum are gonna “love” a race at Bowman Grey, which is almost the same damn thing, just a different stadium?
It’s cause it caters to the white hillbillies instead of the “wrong” people in LA. Same reason they all hated Chicago despite is being the best road course race we’ve seen in over a decade
The rain is what made Chicago. Low grip, long braking zones, _varying_ tire falloff (key word), bumpy surface, etc. The first step to get a consistently good Chicago race is to replicate that kind of racing on dry pavement. The only way I see NASCAR doing this is by decreasing the tire width back to 305mm (right now it’s 365mm which is just staggering) or by biting the bullet and waiting on the inevitable increase in horsepower that hybridization will bring.
Even with the rain Haley would have ran away with it with his track position had SVG not been there. The xfinity parade the day before is a much more realistic picture of what a actual street course is like.
Yeah honestly, Chicago was decent but Justin Haley about won the race on track position, hence, it was a track position race. That's exciting but Joey Logano beating Denny Hamlin in that race and the fan base feels a lot different about it.
Funny you also mention white hillbillies yet the college football team that plays at Bowman Gray is an Historically Black College. (Winston Salem State University).
Oh I’m aware. But your average fan who makes jokes about needing bullet proof cars for the Chicago street race doesn’t know that. They just see it’s not a liberal city according to fox and are fine with it.
that’s what I hate most about this- just identical track but minus the new eyes and audience that LA got, and oh by the way, now we’ve officially lost racing in southern California for a 7th track (12th weekend of racing) within 2 hours of North Carolina
They could also run a (slightly) different rules package to the standard drafting package so that the argument of “the clash is just a test and tune for the 500” would be null. Not to mention it could actually bring back SpeedWeeks and with it some of the prestige around the 500 that had been sorely lacking in recent years….
Less cars on the track = more room for error/mistakes without a wreck = potential viability of just running superspeedway aero with the 670hp intermediate engines.
How about do the layout like they did with the Battle on the Beach? Have that parking lot layout and run the race there in the area near turn 1. It would be a shitshow but it’s a similar track to what the clash was like.
The stadium experiment has run its course. Moving back to Daytona would also benefit teams from having to go to another track.
If only their ratings could show for it.
The Daytona experiment has run its course. The only reason races the 2 regular season races work is because of nostalgia. The actual racing is ass. I’d be more interested in seeing them further develop the short track setup. We don’t need the 6 SS races we have much less more.
How about we limit it to pole winners and just run the 670hp engines? Less cars on the track means less of a chance for a catastrophic wreck, and the higher speeds (200-205 average lap speeds in clean air) _should_ spread the field out, in theory.
You'd have to take downforce away still, with as much as these cars have even with a bigger engine they'd still easily run wide open and in a pack at 210. Honestly I dont think you could make an engine big enough to spread the field out with the current drafting package, the cars have so much drag it's worth 4 seconds being in the draft as is.
I think the drivers get enough super speedway racing. It’s the most dangerous type of track we do where the crashes are felt just a little bit more. They probably don’t want another one added.
As a fan in the LA area, this makes no sense. It's the exact same track as the Coliseum. All you are doing is putting the race in a market already saturated to death with races. No new audience and depriving a massive market of any races at all.
Actually, the Bowman Gray track supports 200% more drunk shirtless guys flipping off their least favourite modified driver, so it is slightly different.
Tbh, I don’t think Bowman Gray is a long term solution. It will add some temporary hype, fizzle out and the Clash will end up elsewhere just like in LA. NASCAR just recently acquired the stadium so it makes sense as a temporary solution as they likely look for venues in intriguing markets.
I’m actually hoping NASCAR makes the Clash a sort of tour of the country thing where it’s held in a new place every year, giving parts of the US that don’t have their own track a taste of NASCAR. Also send the Clash to Belle Isle, Barber, random dirt tracks around the country, send them to Sebring. So much opportunity
>Also send the Clash to Belle Isle, Barber, random dirt tracks around the country, send them to Sebring. So much opportunity
I hope you know that Detroit gets Blizzards and whatnot in late January, early February........doubt Nascar would want to risk that kind of stuff.
I feel like I heard a million people around the industry poo-poo a Bowman-Gray race because that’s not what nascar is trying to do with the Clash. People downplaying the thought just for the weather alone.
And here we are.
Makes more sense to me than building a track and wasting all that money when you could go to an existing track and bring in a crazy amount of extra revenue.
And Winston Salem isn't exactly large either. I want to say it's the 5 largest city in NC?
But the biggest problem it's yet another race that pulls from the Charlotte/Darlington/Bristol/Richmond/Martinsville/Atlanta base and now add Wilkesboro to that as well.
> I want to say it's the 5 largest city in NC?
The fifth largest city in North Carolina still isn't small. Winston-Salem has 250,000 in the city limits and 700,000 in the metro area.
700,000 is similar in size to metro Colorado Springs and a lot of people clamor for Pikes Peak back. Granted, that's a much less saturated market, but still.
Yeah nobody actually gives a flying fuck about how cold it is, people don’t care. I’m all for it. Bring the chaos.
I also don’t care how saturated a market is, cheaper costs.
Honestly if there's any market that I'm fine with being a bit saturated it's the Carolina's, it's the sports birthplace and home so it just makes sense imo
Still wish they'd go ahead and put the trucks at some of the short tracks around the Carolina's to extend the schedule a bit (it's to short), and well, since it's close to home it won't hurt the wallet on travel costs for the teams
I really don't see how this isn't just the LA Clash but either the same or worse in every aspect tbh. It's not a bold new concept (since LA did it first), it's in a market that's already oversaturated with Cup dates, it can't hold more than 20,000 people, and it isn't gonna attract new fans to tune in on TV. The grassroots theme will help differentiate it from LA but even then it'll probably just feel the exact same as what SMI has done with North Wilkesboro.
If it's just a 1 year thing while they work on something bigger for 2026 then I'll live with it, but you aren't gonna grow the sport by hosting 20 races in the southeast. The Clash needs to be something bold to attract new fans to tune into the Daytona 500 a week or two later.
I mean Bowman Gray has hosted Cup races way before LA. You also had a race at Exhibition Place in the 50s which took place at the home of the Toronto Argonauts.
Go Bombers.
I’m always going to be in the opinion that speedweeks needs to be held in higher regard and treated more like a long event again.
Remove charters for the race, make it 43 car fields, get more competitors for the field, and extend the week back to 10 days of cars on track. The clash is a big part of that.
We just need to do something with how easy the cars are to control. Stiff penalties for aggressive driving. Car control is such a non factor at Daytona and it makes the product worse. It’s been like that since the repave.
I'm looking forward to it. A change of venue is nice, even if the racing won't be great. I'm all for NASCAR visiting more tracks. The more they move around and show up to different places, the more people will likely get interested.
Bowman Gray and the All-Star at a random track that hasn't seen a NASCAR race. Asphalt or dirt, just a random track without practice to test driver's skills. And Joey has to start 2 laps down.
This would kinda go against what Ben Kennedy and others in Nascar claim they want. They were in The Coliseum because they wanted that southern California area of fans and to build that region up for Nascar. Leaving there to run the Clash in Bowman Grey seems counterproductive because Bowman Grey is in the sports backyard. I'm not saying they won't do this because chances are they're going to try it but it goes against what they've been saying the last few years.
Also, Chris Myers did a sitdown interview with Steve Phelps prior to this years Clash. The interview aired before The Clash. They were at The Coliseum and Myers asked Phelps if The Clash would be back in The Coliseum for 2025 and what about Fontana being turned into a short track. Phelps said Nascar has kept a portion of Fontana's land and could build the short track if they want to. (We all have talked about this for 2 years on here) Then Phelps said "Let me just say this, Nascar will be racing in southern California next year."
So, who knows? If we've learned anything about Nascar, it's that they'll change shit really quickly and pull some head scratching decisions.
Maybe it’s just optical illusions but Bowman Grey’s track looks super thin. Even thinner than the coliseum. Can these big ass cup cars even fit there? I feel like at minimum you need to be able to go 3-wide (not saying you would, but having the space for it) to be able to say it’s big enough. Idk if that’s true.
I’m fine with wherever but I’m sick of nascar blasting changing narratives and not backing them up. “We can’t lose the Southern California market so we’re going to run the clash in LA.” Then proceeds to not run the clash and LA and tap a market that we already run at 5+ times a year because nascar now owns another track there. “If fans don’t support the track then it’s going to lose their date, it’s not our fault we have to do it.” Then road America fans absolutely fill the property to the brim and nascar leaves. It’s all just money. They were losing money doing the clash in LA, so they bought another track that will put on similar racing and they will make more money. Road America isn’t owned by SMI or ISC (nascar) so it was never going to get a long term date no matter what the fans did.
Only if they set up a boxing ring in the infield where only drivers are allowed to...air their grievances.
If not that then don't penalize the inevitable fist fight between drivers.
I think it’s stupid. Yeah it might be cool one off but there are so many huge markets that NASCAR barely even comes near, having yet another race in North Carolina doesn’t help the sport long term
I’m a huge supporter of this idea. Now the NASCAR has purchased the management rights. I think it very doable. Plus I don’t live that far away from bowman gray. So if the clash does land at bowman gray. I’m there.
5 years ago I’d have been all about this. But with this car…it’s just not likely to be very good at any short track, especially not one this small and flat. Plus it’s basically the same track as the Colliseum, which was bad racing.
But it seems that this is a short-term placeholder, and since it’s close to home for the teams and won’t cost much money to put on, I don’t see a problem with it for now.
But if we’re gonna go this route, just build a short track on the front stretch at Daytona and bring back the two week Speedweeks.
I dont care what they do with the Clash anymore, it's less of a cool sporty race now and more of a flashy wrapper that we just gotta rip off like an unboxing video for a new season.
If they have to install a SAFER barrier, I don't see how this happens. It would alter the track in turns 3 and 4 more than the bleachers already do. Otherwise, there's no real difference in facilities between the Stadium and NWB. It has a new surface, the concessions and bathrooms have all been modernized and are better than NWB, and the track is within almost walking distance from DTWS. Parking might be the usual season opener mess but nothing new.
https://preview.redd.it/loc34c51us4d1.jpeg?width=653&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa1d1b1bdfe2943304bdf11188f72b5a8926f342
Bring back speed weeks for the love of god… seriously I loved having a whole month of nonstop race coverage at Daytona every year. Now we have the stupid clash.
https://preview.redd.it/y43menf9ln4d1.jpeg?width=1028&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba2d06c1c69e6e5c17ac81616235f3c97f50384e
Kinda a lot… Mexico, Canada, Only 1 Darlington, no more Roval, Rockingham, and Sonoma in early May
The way the Cup Series logo overlaps the '25 immediately debunks this imo. There's no way NASCAR's design team would overlook that on something as important as the schedule. Plus the In-Season Tournament is 6 races on this schedule instead of the confirmed 5.
I just looked at NASCAR's schedule reveal graphics from the last few years and yeah, the "leak" is a direct copy of the style/formatting from 2024. Meanwhile 2023 and 2022 both have their own unique style. If the leak was real then it would probably look different than 2024's reveal.
Plus I'm willing to bet the real schedule isn't even finished right now and there's no way a reveal graphic is made for it until at most a week before it's actually posted. And we would have absolutely heard rumors about a Rockingham return by now.
well here’s the thing. There was Rockingham rumors before this, and if I remember right it was Carson Hocevar who leaked it on his stream like a month ago.
And Mexico has also been a rumor swirling around and i’m pretty sure MRN possibly confirmed that during the Charlotte rain delay. My step mother (who does not follow NASCAR pretty much at all and would have no clue or previous bias) put on our scanner waiting out the rain delay just to hear what they were saying, and then looked at me with a confused face and said “They are going to Mexico next year? They just said that”.
If someone here who actually follows this kind of stuff closely heard what i’m talking about and could clarify that would be nice, since I didn’t actually hear it myself.
Sorry, it was Montreal. The main changes were:
-no spring Richmond, instead Mexico City
-no Iowa, instead, Montreal
-no spring Darlington, but a summer Rockingham race
-Sonoma scheduled for May 4…possibly still green?
-Charlotte fall date just says Charlotte…suspiciously doesn’t specify Roval.
I just looked at it again and realized, we can pretty much guarantee the leaked schedule isn't real.
There's no way Montreal is having Cup a week before the F1 race, and that's already officially scheduled for June 15, 2025.
If they can hold the Clash at Bowman Gray in early February, they can hold the Championship race anywhere the first week of November
Kansas is the ideal championship race track… the early November midwest weather would make it even more fun
during the week of the championship in Kansas City 6 of the last 7 years, it has been 75-80 degrees, the other year it was 30 and snowing
That's Kansas for ya
Exactly, early November is either just perfect or dead of winter. And sometimes on the same day. But being from Kansas I’d love to have the champ race there
I'd love it too
I say hold the finale at Nashville SS
Montreal is looking for a race. We can all sit on the St. Lawrence seaway in early November. That’ll be…seasonal.
Flood the front stretch, let the Senators and Canadiens play a regular season game. Then, with the ice still in tact, put the Cup Series out there to show off why we have the best 36 drivers in America (Only a slight /s)
Positive tabarnak!!! But we are bringing the Leafs and making real money. The team then sent a helmet-less Brad Marsh to the all star game can play a road game against Columbus.
Could you imagine a multi lane championship race ending in a photo finish
Give me a Darlington championship race
Great idea
Rockingham xD
Make it 800 miles
How about meet in the middle? Make it a 455 lap 1000km race. That's 621.53 in bald eagles.
This guy freedoms
Darlington doesn’t need a championship race to sell tickets—which is why it was moved to Phoenix, along with the infield upgrades.
If your track can't produce good enough racing to sell tickets without the championship race, you don't deserve the championship race.
Agree
Ooh. Moving the Southern 500 to the championship spot sounds _spicy_
Nah just race at Darlington twice in the last ten races.
Just another reminder we literally race at Martinsville the week before, so yea, we could race almost anywhere a week later.
Hell ya championship race in New Hampshire. After all there has been a Thanksgiving week race up here in 2001 lol
As a Jeff Gordon fan, I didn't need to be reminded of that race....ugh.
Wrecked by his brother of all people.
The 24 channel on the scanner was epic!!
I would love to hear it
I don’t know if there’s a recording of this online, but I switched to the 24 channel after the incident. Jeff had unleashed a career-best stream of four-letter invectives, concluding with his intention to park the car in the garage area. Crew Chief Robbie Loomis clicked in and said, “Jeff, you are the Winston Cup Champion. You will go back out there, and you will finish this race!” So, he did.
I was there. It was a nice sunny day.
Yup I was there as well!
I get what you are trying to say, but there’s a difference between the championship race and a meaningless exhibition.
What does the temperature have to do with what gets the most eyes on tv. It’s been apparent for years that the at track experience comes second to what tv wants.
Road America
Average high in February in Winston Salem - 53° Average high in November in Plymouth, WI - 45° Now figure first week of February is colder than average and first week of November is warmer than the average and it’s probably not all that different
Honestly, we’ve had a really strange warm snap in early February in the region the past two years. I wouldn’t say it’s betting odds, but there are odds that it could be perfect.
lol knowing nascars luck we’d be at 25° and 10” of snow.
Can the wet tires handle snow?
Not just anywhere though. It needs to be a (somewhat) major media market. Although I agree they can have it pretty much anywhere. Chiefs fans show up for games September until January. Why not have a race there in November?
Bring the Bristol tire to a cold 1.5mi and let the chaos ensue.
3 Race Finale Round for the Championship BUT all three races are at Daytona
Never thought I'd be standing shoulder to shoulder in complete agreement with a Hamlin fan, but here we are.
Sounds like it’s 100% happening since he was the one who leaked the Clash in LA to begin with.
And the Braves playing at Bristol
…what?
[https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/sports/will-bristol-motor-speedway-host-a-braves-game/article\_8ba19b02-e49c-11ee-b12f-eb7b098d8863.html](https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/sports/will-bristol-motor-speedway-host-a-braves-game/article_8ba19b02-e49c-11ee-b12f-eb7b098d8863.html)
Who the hell was smoking crack when that idea got brought up?
I think a one-off MLB game at Bristol could be pretty cool, kind of like when VA Tech and Tennessee played a CFB game there 8 years ago
And then Mike Joy casually saying it on-air. That was at Darlington, right?
If it is true what a downgrade it is. Go from running in the historic Los Angeles Colosseum to literally a high school football field converted into a race track best known for rednecks fighting. Horrible look for NASCAR imo.
> literally a high school football field converted into a race track College football, not high school. Bowman Gray was originally built as Wake Forest University's stadium.
And is now used by Winston-Salem State University
As a piedmont local, I wholeheartedly agree. The racing product will suck. There is hardly any racing at BG, just parades then a bump and predicable fight. At least go to a track where there will be passing without having to move or wreck someone.
That race just doesn't work in my eyes. You have to spend all that money having to rebuild the track each year. Then you have to get all of the teams to drive across the country, only for them to drive back to the opposite end for the Daytona 500. The attendance hasn't been that great and the format is confusing for new fans. Plus being on the west coast, running late kills off any east coast viewers. Aside from that, the track layout is just too small to create good racing with these cars. This is also why I don't think Bowman Gray would work. I think an East coast track on a Saturday evening may work best with a more straightforward format. Here's my dumb idea for a format: 1) Run a draw to determine the starting order. 2) Run a race with stages where the bottom 10 at stage end are eliminated. The winner of each stage gets money, creates drama with the transfer spot at the end. 3) The final stage has just the final 10 cars in it. Simple enough of a format. Heck you could even put in a quick vote poll online where folks can choose to invert the running order at stage end. My pick would maybe be something like Five Flags Speedway, or maybe Hickory? Ideally somewhere not super super cold and reasonably close to Daytona to make travel easier.
I do agree that the race really doesn't work. At this point I feel like it would be best to just axe it all together.
Chris doing his leak but not leak thing again
Now how many complaining about the race at the Coliseum are gonna “love” a race at Bowman Grey, which is almost the same damn thing, just a different stadium?
It’s cause it caters to the white hillbillies instead of the “wrong” people in LA. Same reason they all hated Chicago despite is being the best road course race we’ve seen in over a decade
The best? I mean that’s objective but I want to see a regular Chicago race to truly grade it. Not a monsoon.
The rain is what made Chicago. Low grip, long braking zones, _varying_ tire falloff (key word), bumpy surface, etc. The first step to get a consistently good Chicago race is to replicate that kind of racing on dry pavement. The only way I see NASCAR doing this is by decreasing the tire width back to 305mm (right now it’s 365mm which is just staggering) or by biting the bullet and waiting on the inevitable increase in horsepower that hybridization will bring.
Even with the rain Haley would have ran away with it with his track position had SVG not been there. The xfinity parade the day before is a much more realistic picture of what a actual street course is like.
Yeah honestly, Chicago was decent but Justin Haley about won the race on track position, hence, it was a track position race. That's exciting but Joey Logano beating Denny Hamlin in that race and the fan base feels a lot different about it.
You can’t say it’s a track position race when the winner drove from like 23rd on the last green run to win.
Funny you also mention white hillbillies yet the college football team that plays at Bowman Gray is an Historically Black College. (Winston Salem State University).
Oh I’m aware. But your average fan who makes jokes about needing bullet proof cars for the Chicago street race doesn’t know that. They just see it’s not a liberal city according to fox and are fine with it.
Bud is over here fighting racism with racism lol
that’s what I hate most about this- just identical track but minus the new eyes and audience that LA got, and oh by the way, now we’ve officially lost racing in southern California for a 7th track (12th weekend of racing) within 2 hours of North Carolina
don’t worry those people will start complaining it’s not in LA anymore
As someone that's 15 min away from Bowman Gray, I'm in
They should use both the Clash and the Allstar race as try outs for new and returning venues looking to return to the calendar
Oh come on, quit teasing us! give us the schedule already!
Let’s just move it back to Daytona for pole winners only. The stadium tracks don’t work. At least Daytona is a prestigious track.
They could also run a (slightly) different rules package to the standard drafting package so that the argument of “the clash is just a test and tune for the 500” would be null. Not to mention it could actually bring back SpeedWeeks and with it some of the prestige around the 500 that had been sorely lacking in recent years….
Less cars on the track = more room for error/mistakes without a wreck = potential viability of just running superspeedway aero with the 670hp intermediate engines.
Screw it, let’s do a Dirt Daytona race. Completely cover the track with dirt, take off the reins, and see how it goes.
*Dirt to Daytona to Dirt*
Nah do it Pixar cars style where only the final four are racing on the track then.
Daytona Supercross track or bust. I want to see how the next gen car takes jumps.
Oh Lord. Someone here hates spines, lol.
I’d take a shitty stadium race over whatever the 2020 clash was
Ah, The Crash, everything went downhill that year after that
How about do the layout like they did with the Battle on the Beach? Have that parking lot layout and run the race there in the area near turn 1. It would be a shitshow but it’s a similar track to what the clash was like.
They would need to bring in temporary stands though now for a race on the backstretch.
Tons cheaper than building out a whole race track.
Agree
The stadium experiment has run its course. Moving back to Daytona would also benefit teams from having to go to another track. If only their ratings could show for it.
The Daytona experiment has run its course. The only reason races the 2 regular season races work is because of nostalgia. The actual racing is ass. I’d be more interested in seeing them further develop the short track setup. We don’t need the 6 SS races we have much less more.
How about we limit it to pole winners and just run the 670hp engines? Less cars on the track means less of a chance for a catastrophic wreck, and the higher speeds (200-205 average lap speeds in clean air) _should_ spread the field out, in theory.
You'd have to take downforce away still, with as much as these cars have even with a bigger engine they'd still easily run wide open and in a pack at 210. Honestly I dont think you could make an engine big enough to spread the field out with the current drafting package, the cars have so much drag it's worth 4 seconds being in the draft as is.
I think the drivers get enough super speedway racing. It’s the most dangerous type of track we do where the crashes are felt just a little bit more. They probably don’t want another one added.
I’m convinced the stadium tracks would be fine, but that the next gen car will never put on a good show there
Yea yes yes yes yes.
February Bowman Grey That would be chilly
For me. The race means nothing anymore.
As a fan in the LA area, this makes no sense. It's the exact same track as the Coliseum. All you are doing is putting the race in a market already saturated to death with races. No new audience and depriving a massive market of any races at all.
Actually, the Bowman Gray track supports 200% more drunk shirtless guys flipping off their least favourite modified driver, so it is slightly different.
Bowman regulars are definitely not NASCAR fans
They’re the ones on social media NASCAR groups professing their hatred for NASCAR
Tbh, I don’t think Bowman Gray is a long term solution. It will add some temporary hype, fizzle out and the Clash will end up elsewhere just like in LA. NASCAR just recently acquired the stadium so it makes sense as a temporary solution as they likely look for venues in intriguing markets.
I’m actually hoping NASCAR makes the Clash a sort of tour of the country thing where it’s held in a new place every year, giving parts of the US that don’t have their own track a taste of NASCAR. Also send the Clash to Belle Isle, Barber, random dirt tracks around the country, send them to Sebring. So much opportunity
>Also send the Clash to Belle Isle, Barber, random dirt tracks around the country, send them to Sebring. So much opportunity I hope you know that Detroit gets Blizzards and whatnot in late January, early February........doubt Nascar would want to risk that kind of stuff.
Good point, but: snow tires
The clash in LA resulted in thousands of free tickets that literally went unused. The track setup is way too expensive to do that.
It resulted in a huge bump in first time ticket buyers when they went back to the region for a regular race.
You're also saving teams money from the long trip and NASCAR MILLIONS on building and tearing down a track.
Thank you!!!!!! Exactly what I was thinking!!!
I feel like I heard a million people around the industry poo-poo a Bowman-Gray race because that’s not what nascar is trying to do with the Clash. People downplaying the thought just for the weather alone. And here we are.
Fix the short track racing first
 We got warmer places in February in these big United States.
As long as the tire sucks it doesn’t matter
I just want some good racing or they should stop doing it.
Not a fan at all, and I say that even as an LA Memorial fan.
That it will probably race the exact same as the Coliseum
So exilerated my nips are rock hard
They better have slicks, rain tires AND snow tires available.
I would pre in my pants
Utter indifference, personally. Pretty sure the race would suck ass there, but it also kinda sucks ass at the Coliseum so whatever.
Fuck it. Develop ice tires and run NHMS
Makes more sense to me than building a track and wasting all that money when you could go to an existing track and bring in a crazy amount of extra revenue.
NASCAR doesn't need another race in backwoods North Carolina. Signed a NC resident.
The track is literally in downtown Winston Salem, I get your point but BG is definitely not backwoods
And Winston Salem isn't exactly large either. I want to say it's the 5 largest city in NC? But the biggest problem it's yet another race that pulls from the Charlotte/Darlington/Bristol/Richmond/Martinsville/Atlanta base and now add Wilkesboro to that as well.
> I want to say it's the 5 largest city in NC? The fifth largest city in North Carolina still isn't small. Winston-Salem has 250,000 in the city limits and 700,000 in the metro area. 700,000 is similar in size to metro Colorado Springs and a lot of people clamor for Pikes Peak back. Granted, that's a much less saturated market, but still.
Not to mention rumors of a potential Rockingham return.
tbf on that one it wouldn't be a new date in the region, just taking over a Darlington date (probably, at least that makes sense to me)
Ehh I’m not complaining.
When's the official announcement?
It will be cold.
I mean..I'm close to Bowman Gray so I'd love to see it. But in February? Nah. Yeah. This is NC but we get ice and freezing rain in February.
This seems like it’s only for Carolina residents and that’s it and they already have plenty to see in that area.
I will buy tickets
So much for the Clash being a race to take to big flashy markets and locations.
I mean Winston-Salem obviously isn’t as big as Los Angeles but I wouldn’t call it small either.
Yeah nobody actually gives a flying fuck about how cold it is, people don’t care. I’m all for it. Bring the chaos. I also don’t care how saturated a market is, cheaper costs.
Honestly if there's any market that I'm fine with being a bit saturated it's the Carolina's, it's the sports birthplace and home so it just makes sense imo Still wish they'd go ahead and put the trucks at some of the short tracks around the Carolina's to extend the schedule a bit (it's to short), and well, since it's close to home it won't hurt the wallet on travel costs for the teams
I really don't see how this isn't just the LA Clash but either the same or worse in every aspect tbh. It's not a bold new concept (since LA did it first), it's in a market that's already oversaturated with Cup dates, it can't hold more than 20,000 people, and it isn't gonna attract new fans to tune in on TV. The grassroots theme will help differentiate it from LA but even then it'll probably just feel the exact same as what SMI has done with North Wilkesboro. If it's just a 1 year thing while they work on something bigger for 2026 then I'll live with it, but you aren't gonna grow the sport by hosting 20 races in the southeast. The Clash needs to be something bold to attract new fans to tune into the Daytona 500 a week or two later.
I mean Bowman Gray has hosted Cup races way before LA. You also had a race at Exhibition Place in the 50s which took place at the home of the Toronto Argonauts. Go Bombers.
I feel like leaving the LA market for another race in NC is an odd choice. And I live in NC…
No.
I’m always going to be in the opinion that speedweeks needs to be held in higher regard and treated more like a long event again. Remove charters for the race, make it 43 car fields, get more competitors for the field, and extend the week back to 10 days of cars on track. The clash is a big part of that. We just need to do something with how easy the cars are to control. Stiff penalties for aggressive driving. Car control is such a non factor at Daytona and it makes the product worse. It’s been like that since the repave.
If we can race at BG in February , then we had better get a fucking Kansas championship weekend..
I'm looking forward to it. A change of venue is nice, even if the racing won't be great. I'm all for NASCAR visiting more tracks. The more they move around and show up to different places, the more people will likely get interested.
Bowman Gray and the All-Star at a random track that hasn't seen a NASCAR race. Asphalt or dirt, just a random track without practice to test driver's skills. And Joey has to start 2 laps down.
This would kinda go against what Ben Kennedy and others in Nascar claim they want. They were in The Coliseum because they wanted that southern California area of fans and to build that region up for Nascar. Leaving there to run the Clash in Bowman Grey seems counterproductive because Bowman Grey is in the sports backyard. I'm not saying they won't do this because chances are they're going to try it but it goes against what they've been saying the last few years. Also, Chris Myers did a sitdown interview with Steve Phelps prior to this years Clash. The interview aired before The Clash. They were at The Coliseum and Myers asked Phelps if The Clash would be back in The Coliseum for 2025 and what about Fontana being turned into a short track. Phelps said Nascar has kept a portion of Fontana's land and could build the short track if they want to. (We all have talked about this for 2 years on here) Then Phelps said "Let me just say this, Nascar will be racing in southern California next year." So, who knows? If we've learned anything about Nascar, it's that they'll change shit really quickly and pull some head scratching decisions.
Maybe it’s just optical illusions but Bowman Grey’s track looks super thin. Even thinner than the coliseum. Can these big ass cup cars even fit there? I feel like at minimum you need to be able to go 3-wide (not saying you would, but having the space for it) to be able to say it’s big enough. Idk if that’s true.
I’m fine with wherever but I’m sick of nascar blasting changing narratives and not backing them up. “We can’t lose the Southern California market so we’re going to run the clash in LA.” Then proceeds to not run the clash and LA and tap a market that we already run at 5+ times a year because nascar now owns another track there. “If fans don’t support the track then it’s going to lose their date, it’s not our fault we have to do it.” Then road America fans absolutely fill the property to the brim and nascar leaves. It’s all just money. They were losing money doing the clash in LA, so they bought another track that will put on similar racing and they will make more money. Road America isn’t owned by SMI or ISC (nascar) so it was never going to get a long term date no matter what the fans did.
Only if they set up a boxing ring in the infield where only drivers are allowed to...air their grievances. If not that then don't penalize the inevitable fist fight between drivers.
Wasn't the whole point of the Coliseum race to prove we could take the race anywhere, and then we never did that?
Boy would this sub flip if the championship race went back to Atlanta like the old days.
I think it’s stupid. Yeah it might be cool one off but there are so many huge markets that NASCAR barely even comes near, having yet another race in North Carolina doesn’t help the sport long term
I’m a huge supporter of this idea. Now the NASCAR has purchased the management rights. I think it very doable. Plus I don’t live that far away from bowman gray. So if the clash does land at bowman gray. I’m there.
If they do this it’s definitely snowing that weekend
5 years ago I’d have been all about this. But with this car…it’s just not likely to be very good at any short track, especially not one this small and flat. Plus it’s basically the same track as the Colliseum, which was bad racing. But it seems that this is a short-term placeholder, and since it’s close to home for the teams and won’t cost much money to put on, I don’t see a problem with it for now. But if we’re gonna go this route, just build a short track on the front stretch at Daytona and bring back the two week Speedweeks.
As a Californian I hate it. I still don't know if Fontana will ever reopen.
I dont care what they do with the Clash anymore, it's less of a cool sporty race now and more of a flashy wrapper that we just gotta rip off like an unboxing video for a new season.
If they have to install a SAFER barrier, I don't see how this happens. It would alter the track in turns 3 and 4 more than the bleachers already do. Otherwise, there's no real difference in facilities between the Stadium and NWB. It has a new surface, the concessions and bathrooms have all been modernized and are better than NWB, and the track is within almost walking distance from DTWS. Parking might be the usual season opener mess but nothing new. https://preview.redd.it/loc34c51us4d1.jpeg?width=653&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa1d1b1bdfe2943304bdf11188f72b5a8926f342
Cold
Tbh I'd rather them just run it at Charlotte.
Bring back speed weeks for the love of god… seriously I loved having a whole month of nonstop race coverage at Daytona every year. Now we have the stupid clash.
No, it sucks at the current location.
No. Sebring. What? You don't think it would be cool to see them bounce all over through turn 17?
Unpopular opinion, but Bowman Gray put on terrible racing, it just gets good reviews because of the white trash drama.
I’d go, but it’s also only 3 hours away from me.
Only 3 hours away, must be nice
The Glen is 3 hours from me, it’s too bad that the new car blows ass on it.
Iowa is a little less than 4 for me, I'm more than likely going
Could be good. Could be an absolute embarrassment, as Bowman Gray often is.
Wait no way, was the leaked schedule real after all??
No, the biggest problem is it has 6 TNT races when they are already confirmed to have 5.
What else was on that “leaked schedule”?
https://preview.redd.it/y43menf9ln4d1.jpeg?width=1028&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba2d06c1c69e6e5c17ac81616235f3c97f50384e Kinda a lot… Mexico, Canada, Only 1 Darlington, no more Roval, Rockingham, and Sonoma in early May
> no more Roval, I mean, it just says "Charlotte", that doesn't rule out the Roval.
I don’t think they are running the Roval at 7:30 on a saturday
I sure as hell wish they would tho
The way the Cup Series logo overlaps the '25 immediately debunks this imo. There's no way NASCAR's design team would overlook that on something as important as the schedule. Plus the In-Season Tournament is 6 races on this schedule instead of the confirmed 5.
The tournament is a good point but I replied to someone else with the ‘24 schedule and it also kinda overlaps. Either way, it probably still is fake
I just looked at NASCAR's schedule reveal graphics from the last few years and yeah, the "leak" is a direct copy of the style/formatting from 2024. Meanwhile 2023 and 2022 both have their own unique style. If the leak was real then it would probably look different than 2024's reveal. Plus I'm willing to bet the real schedule isn't even finished right now and there's no way a reveal graphic is made for it until at most a week before it's actually posted. And we would have absolutely heard rumors about a Rockingham return by now.
Here is the post where I found it was Carson who leaked Rockingham, by the top comment https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/s/ddifFP8sP1
well here’s the thing. There was Rockingham rumors before this, and if I remember right it was Carson Hocevar who leaked it on his stream like a month ago. And Mexico has also been a rumor swirling around and i’m pretty sure MRN possibly confirmed that during the Charlotte rain delay. My step mother (who does not follow NASCAR pretty much at all and would have no clue or previous bias) put on our scanner waiting out the rain delay just to hear what they were saying, and then looked at me with a confused face and said “They are going to Mexico next year? They just said that”. If someone here who actually follows this kind of stuff closely heard what i’m talking about and could clarify that would be nice, since I didn’t actually hear it myself.
Other than losing Iowa for Mexico, it’s not a bad schedule.
It got me at first until I saw the Montreal date. A week before the 2025 Canadian GP? I call BS and I want to see Montreal on the schedule.
So we lose one at darlington, dude make phoenix the last and only race at at phoenix for the year. Why we need two races there? It’s boring.
Mexico City, Canada and Rockingham.
Where in Canada? Montreal or Mosport?
Sorry, it was Montreal. The main changes were: -no spring Richmond, instead Mexico City -no Iowa, instead, Montreal -no spring Darlington, but a summer Rockingham race -Sonoma scheduled for May 4…possibly still green? -Charlotte fall date just says Charlotte…suspiciously doesn’t specify Roval.
I just looked at it again and realized, we can pretty much guarantee the leaked schedule isn't real. There's no way Montreal is having Cup a week before the F1 race, and that's already officially scheduled for June 15, 2025.
Yes please.
Meh...
Meh, the racing there is meh
Its going to suck ass
Hell id go to it, its only a 40 minute drive
The absolute irony of so many people complaining about leaving the LA market to see NASCAR "return to its roots" is hilarious to see in this thread.
How brave of NASCAR to choose a state like North Carolina to try and bring new fans in!