NASCAR returned to its roots with a preseason event at Bowman Gray Stadium, where there were no fights and Chase Elliott took the victory in The Clash on Sunday night.
Elliott won his heat race on Saturday night to start from the pole and went on to dominate the quarter-mile track, where the Cup Series last raced in 1971. The win was Elliott’s first-ever in The Clash, and it made him the second member of his family to win the race.
His father, Bill Elliott, won The Clash in 1987 before following it up with a Daytona 500 victory. Now, Chase hopes to do the same when the season officially starts at Daytona International Speedway on February 16.
“Excited to get to Daytona. It’s a great way to start the season,” Elliott said. “I know it’s not a points race, but it is nice to win, for sure. Just really proud of our team for just continuing to keep our heads down and push forward, for sure.”
The Clash has always been a non-points event, taking place at Daytona International Speedway from 1979 to 2021 as a warm-up for the Daytona 500. NASCAR changed things up in 2022 by moving the race to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where it was held for three years on a temporary short track.
This year, NASCAR returned to Bowman Gray as a throwback to the sport’s grassroots roots. The Cup Series raced there from 1958 to 1971, and the track is now used for local racing and serves as the football field for Winston-Salem State University. Though the track is famous for its rough-and-tumble atmosphere, it held two days of racing without any fights.
“This environment is special. This is a place that has had deep history in NASCAR,” Elliott said. “I think they deserve this event, truthfully. I hope we didn’t disappoint. It was fun for me, at least. We’ll hopefully come back here one day.”
Elliott led 172 of the 200 laps in his Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports to claim the win in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,000 fans. The crowd cheered loudly every time Elliott passed a lapped car while racing door-to-door with Denny Hamlin and holding off Ryan Blaney at the finish.
“Thanks everybody for coming out,” Elliott told the crowd. “Y’all made for a really cool environment for us. We don’t race in stadiums like this, so this is just really cool and appreciate you making the moment special for me and my team. I hope it was a good show for you.”
“Had a tough race. Ryan kept me honest there at the end,” he continued. “Denny was really good at the second half of that break. I just felt like he was kind of riding, and I was afraid to lose control of the race and not be able to get it back. Fortunately it worked out. Great way to start the season.”
Kyle Larson and Josh Berry secured their spots in The Clash earlier in the night by finishing first and second in the last-chance qualifier, which was filled with crashes. Blaney made the field based on points from last season, completing the 23-driver lineup.
This year marked the first Cup Series race at Bowman Gray, but despite the track’s reputation for fiery tempers, there were no major fights. Still, the event had its share of memorable moments.
Richard Childress, a Hall of Fame team owner from nearby, was in the stands watching the race. As a young boy, he had sold peanuts at the track, and before the race, he stopped by the Fox Sports booth to deliver snacks to the broadcast team.
“As a kid we jumped the fence and come in and sell peanuts and popcorn, then I’d hang out with all the race drivers, and we had a heck of a time,” Childress said. “I said ‘Man, as much fun as they are having, I’ve got to be a race driver.’ We’d come over here for a fight and a race would break out.”
Blaney finished second in a Ford for Team Penske, with Hamlin following in third in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
