Here comes the train, so buckle up for a bumpy ride! The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is about to be officially flagged off. For starters, we are heading to the much-awaited Cook Out Clash race at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The venue switch from the L.A. Coliseum is not the only thing that drivers like Alex Bowman are thinking about. They are also gearing up for heated rivalries between teams.

Well, in that regard, Alex Bowman may have little to worry about. His powerhouse team under Rick Hendrick clinched the maximum Cup Series race wins last season. In 2025, Chase Elliott is leading the group into the rollercoaster of races – as Bowman sends out a warning.

Alex Bowman is rolling up his sleeves

Well, it’s about time, as the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy has a lot to prove this year. After getting hounded by rumors of ejection last year, Alex Bowman is coming prepared to rock NASCAR this time and his teammates are helping fuel his motivation to succeed. Chase Elliott, the No. 9 driver, clinched the pole position in the first qualifying heat race. He also set the fastest time in the final four-minute practice session. Meanwhile, Bowman advanced to the final race from Heat race number 3, along with rival and defending Clash winner Denny Hamlin, past Rookie of the Year Carson Hocevar, and 2024 Cup champion Joey Logano.

Alex Bowman is hopeful despite the formidable group of rivals stacked against him. Since 1971, the Clash race has acted as the warm-up for the main Cup Series races, being an exhibition event. However, Bowman recently revealed that HMS is treating it as any other race, hence warning his rivals. “You know, it’s still a race. Somebody’s still gotta go win. So we’re definitely working as hard as we would be as for a normal race. Just because it’s an exhibition race, doesn’t mean we work less hard. A lot of people here in HMS have worked really hard to get our race cars get the best spots we can be.”

Yet the fact of the matter remains – NASCAR is returning to the 0.25-mile Bowman Gray track after 54 years. The wild close-quarters is something many drivers have anticipated, and even Bowman let slip a tone of concern. “I think the racing is probably going to get super physical. And you might see guys doing different things, maybe carrying a little bit less in those situations and just maybe racing a little differently. I would say, the good guys are still going to be really good. I’m not sure you can predict the whole season based on the outcome of the Clash. But at the same time, we’re still going to try our best to win the race.”

Only five drivers have ever won the ‘Clash’ and the Championship in the same season. The legendary Dale Earnhardt is the only one to do it on multiple occasions, while the other drivers include Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and most recently, Joey Logano. So Bowman is right, it is pretty rare to see someone win both in the same season, especially since the gap between the previous two times this has happened is 20 years! Tony Stewart did it in 2002 when he won his maiden title and Logano in 2022 to win his 2nd. However, none of these took place at Bowman Gray Stadium, which poses a challenge that Alex Bowman is very aware of, and so are his teammates. Even Chase Elliott, who claimed the pole, has expressed how difficult this race will be.

Retaining your position

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Bowman Gray represents the epitome of short-track racing. Here, the drivers can easily make contact and wreck each other while trying to pass. That is related to what Chase Elliott believes to be most important for the Clash. He clinched the starting spot after all four heat winners won wire-to-wire after posting the four fastest laps in the final practice sessions. This underscores how important grabbing that pole is for this race. Elliott will share the front row with RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher, who led every lap of the qualifier besides holding off new Joe Gibbs Racing recruit Chase Briscoe. Heat 3 and Heat 4 winners Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick will start from the 3rd and 4th positions.

After grabbing the most coveted spot in the race, Chase Elliott underlined what he feels is paramount for this race – retaining track position. “It’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row…I think the first couple of rows certainly have a massive advantage over the rest of the field. Obviously, anything can happen. You all have been watching long enough to know that anything can happen, and I’m well aware of that. But I think just in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever — yeah, I certainly would want to be on the first couple of rows and, fortunately, we are. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”

Chase Elliott enters the Clash with a chip on his shoulder, never having won the event in the past, with a best finish of P2 in 2021. However, Elliott and Bowman are cautious of the upcoming race. Yet that is not enough to muffle their supreme motivation to win.