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From the tobacco farms of the state to its industrial lots filled with race cars, winter in the Carolinas is a still and peaceful time. The blank slate of a barren earth in January carries with it the promise of new life and fosters anticipation that eventually, something will pierce through the stillness and animate the world once more for the new year.

This weekend in Winston-Salem -- a little ways off from the tobacco farms and not far from the greater Charlotte area -- the Carolina winter will heat up and the earth will roar back to life with the beginning of a new year for NASCAR with its annual preseason exhibition race, the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. After three years at the Los Angeles Coliseum, this year's Clash features a more historic and down home feel, as Bowman Gray -- the first asphalt oval NASCAR ever raced on and a short track racing institution since 1939 -- will play host to the Cup Series for the first time since 1971.

The list of Cup Series winners at Bowman Gray is a who's who of some of NASCAR's greatest drivers, whether it be Junior Johnson, Richard Petty or David Pearson. And while this track has remained equal parts legendary and notorious at the grassroots level, NASCAR's best will now get their chance to become the first Cup driver to win at Bowman Gray in the sport's modern era.

Where to watch the Cook Out Clash

When: Sunday, Feb. 2, 8 p.m. ET
Where: Bowman Gray Stadium -- Winston-Salem, N.C.
TV: Fox
Stream: fubo (try for free)

Cook Out Clash race format

As a non-points event, the format of the Clash differs from most NASCAR Cup Series races: The 23-car field will be determined by a series of four heat races on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1), with each driver's fastest time from their final practice session determining where they line up for the heats. The driver with the fastest time in final practice will earn the pole for Heat 1, the driver with the second fastest time will be on the pole for Heat 2, and so forth.

The top five finishers in each heat race will advance to the Clash's main event, while the rest will have to race their way in through the last chance qualifier on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Fox). The heats on Saturday night advanced 20 drivers to the main event, leaving only three spots left in the feature.

1 - #9 - Chase Elliott
2 - #17 - Chris Buescher
3 - #11 - Denny Hamlin
4 - #45 - Tyler Reddick
5 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
6 - #19 - Chase Briscoe
7 - #22 - Joey Logano
8 - #20 - Christopher Bell
9 - #4 - Noah Gragson
10 - #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
11 - #24 - William Byron
12 - #60 - Ryan Preece
13 - #8 - Kyle Busch
14 - #23 - Bubba Wallace
15 - #77 - Carson Hocevar
16 - #2 - Austin Cindric
17 - #1 - Ross Chastain
18 - #99 - Daniel Suarez
19 - #48 - Alex Bowman
20 - #34 - Todd Gilliland

The LCQ will be 75 laps with only green flag laps counting, but no overtime procedures will be in place. The top two finishers in the last chance qualifier will advance to the main event, with the final spot being filled by the driver highest in 2024 driver points who did not advance through either the heats or LCQ. In the event that he is not one of the top two finishers, Ryan Blaney will earn the 23rd and final starting spot by virtue of having finished second in points a year ago.

The Clash main event will be 200 laps including a midway break after Lap 100. Only green flag laps will count, and the race must finish under green flag conditions.

What's new in NASCAR for 2025

Bowman Gray Stadium is one of two new additions to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule this season, with the changes to the calendar representing both NASCAR's roots in the Carolinas and its expansion well beyond. Among the other schedule changes and race realignments includes a new race in Mexico City this June, when Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will host the Cup Series' first international race on foreign soil in NASCAR's modern era. 

NASCAR 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks, locations
Steven Taranto
NASCAR 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks, locations

This weekend's Clash also gives us the first look at the 2025 Cup Series field of drivers and teams, which has been shaken up thanks to everything from the retirement of former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. to the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing. Former SHR driver Chase Briscoe has joined Joe Gibbs Racing to replace Truex as the driver of the No. 19 Toyota, and a number of teams have expanded to fill the vacuum left by one of NASCAR's former powerhouse teams. 

This weekend will also feature two faces that, while new to the Cup Series, are regarded as among the greatest to ever compete in weekly competition at Bowman Gray. 53-year-old Tim Brown -- a longtime Cup Series mechanic but a multi-time Bowman Gray track champion -- will receive a dream opportunity as he makes his Cup debut in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford, a car he himself helped build as the team's suspension and drivetrain specialist.

Not to be outdone, another Bowman Gray champion -- Burt Myers -- will also make his Cup debut driving the No. 50 Chevrolet for Team AmeriVet. The rivalry between Brown and Myers has helped make Bowman Gray "The Madhouse" across the years, and it makes this event an extra special one for both fans of grassroots racing and short track racers who one day dream of getting their chance to race at NASCAR's highest levels.

"Anybody that knows me it's very seldom that I'm ever speechless, but this has kind of made me speechless," Brown told reporters earlier this month. "... I never knew this would blow up to be such a big story and how cool it is for myself and my family and here for everybody at RWR and everyone in the short track racing world. It's pretty cool news."

Pick to Win

Denny Hamlin (+800) -- While the Clash will mark the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Bowman Gray since back in 1971, the good part is that its very nature as a flat quarter-mile oval allows us to easily project past performances from the previous home of the Clash, the purpose-built quarter mile within the Los Angeles Coliseum. The final Clash at the Coliseum, of course, was won by Denny Hamlin, who remains one of NASCAR's very best short track racers.

In three Clashes since the event was moved to a quarter-mile, Hamlin has his win last year to go with a ninth-place finish after leading 26 laps the previous year (He failed to finish in 2022 with power steering issues). Not only that, but Hamlin cut his teeth racing on the 0.400-mile Langley Speedway in Virginia, which isn't that much larger than Bowman Gray when you boil it down. Hamlin should feel right at home, even if he'll probably be the driver who most draws the ire of the Madhouse crowd.

For more NASCAR picks, visit SportsLine for a full breakdown of this weekend's Clash.