Format for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium

On Tuesday, NASCAR revealed the format for the 2025 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.

The season-opening NASCAR Cup Series exhibition race will star 23 drivers in a 200-lap feature event on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The tight confines of the 0.25-mile Bowman Gray oval set up for an event similar to that hosted by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 through 2024.

The weekend’s on-track action begins Feb. 1 with live practice sessions on FS1. The entrants will be split into three practice groups, with each group set for three practice sessions. Each competitor’s fastest lap from their final practice session will determine the starting lineup for one of four 25-lap heat races.

The fastest driver in final practice will start from pole position in Heat 1; the second-fastest driver will start from the pole in Heat 2; the third-fastest driver will start from the pole in Heat 3, and so on. Only green-flag laps will count in each heat with no overtime in play. The top five finishers in each heat will advance to Sunday night’s feature event.

Those who do not advance will have one more chance to advance courtesy of a 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier, or LCQ, on Sunday afternoon. Like the heat races, only green-flag laps will count toward the lap total with no overtime in play. The top two finishers in the LCQ will advance to the feature race, where they will start 21st and 22nd, respectively. The 23rd and final starting position in the Clash will be awarded to the driver who finished highest in the 2024 driver points standings who did not already transfer into the main event.

Sunday night’s 200-lap feature starting lineup will be set by the results of the heat races. Heat 1’s winner will start on pole for the main event while Heat 2’s victor will start second in the feature. A timed break will be observed at the race’s halfway point at Lap 100. Like the preliminary events, only green-flag laps will count and the event must finish under the green flag.

The 2025 Cook Out Clash marks the Cup Series’ first return to the historic Bowman Gray Stadium since 1971, when Bobby Allison scored the victory in the last of 29 points-paying races at the quarter-mile venue in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Courtesy of NASCAR