Bowman Gray Stadium will host a NASCAR race for the first time in over 50 years. The legendary BGS is set to host an electrifying NASCAR event as the 2025 pre-season exhibition Clash and is confirmed to take place on February 2nd. This exciting announcement fulfills the hopes of countless NASCAR fans, bringing the popular event to the iconic Winston-Salem venue, which NASCAR has recently acquired.

The Clash is relocating from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after a three-year stint, following its initial run in Florida as the precursor to the Daytona 500. The entire NASCAR community is delighted. And, why wouldn’t they be? The historic track has such an effect on people. As it did on Kevin Harvick, who just couldn’t contain his happiness as he talked about the return of BGS.

Kevin Harvick awaits the Bowman Gray race

NASCAR is quite literally going back to its roots! Bowman-Gray Stadium was built way back in 1937 during the Great Depression and is one of the most historic tracks. In the early 1930s, the venue started out hosting football and horse racing, but in 1939, the real fun began with auto races. They paved the dirt track in 1947, and a year later, NASCAR was born. By 1949, Bowman-Gray was hosting its first official NASCAR race, becoming the first paved track in NASCAR’s history and the first to have weekly races.

Although NASCAR only raced there from 1958 to 1971. BGS has always had a special place in all NASCAR fans’ hearts. If you ask legendary NASCAR racer Richard Petty, he will tell you how special BGS is to him and the era. He grabbed his 100th career win at the oval. The track also hosted a series of NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races from 2011 to 2015. Although it is returning after long, many current racers like Alex Boman and Kyle Larson have previously raced her. Overall, it’s great news, and Kevin Harvick had plenty to say about it.

In his recent podcast episode of ‘Happy Hour’, Harvick said, “All the history and nostalgia that goes with Bowman Gray Stadium. Those fans are, I would say, rabid. Being able to go to a racetrack that has such a historic place in our sport. But also such a historic place on a weekly basis from a weekly racing series standpoint just adds more to the mystique of Bowman Gray and my hope is that we don’t do it again.” Kevin Harvick, although delighted, also raised caution!

The Los Angeles Coliseum is also a historic track, but by overdoing the races there, it lost its charm. Kevin Harvick does not want that to happen with the Madhouse. Reiterating this, he said, “I hope we don’t overdo it like we did at the Coliseum.” 

• What happened there?
• Why was the clash shifted to Bowman Gray Stadium?

From the Coliseum to the Madhouse: The Clash’s finally shifts

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The first year at the Coliseum, the track had all the hype since. It was the first time a temporary racetrack had been built inside a stadium that was a century old. The 2022 Clash, a made-for-TV event, was a successful departure from the traditional Daytona International Speedway season opener. In the second year, the hype slowly died down, and racing was chaotic on the small track.

NASCAR dragged its experiment to a third year as it wanted to attract a new and young kind of crowd towards the sport. At the most recent one, because of heavy rainfall in Los Angeles, the Clash event was rescheduled. The pre-race excitement was muted, and the crowd was noticeably smaller than expected. Although NASCAR deserves all the praise for creating a makeshift track. But they have got to admit that their experiment failed.

Ben Kennedy, executive vice president for NASCAR, whose brainchild this is, was in denial. He previously said, “The interest is still strong. The first year, it was new and novel and we’d never done anything like that before. In the second year, obviously a lot of return customers and some new customers as well. In this third year, we are seeing similar trends to what we saw last year.”

However, if it was a success, and the hype is still there, why did NASCAR feel the need to shift it to BGS?

How excited are you for the 2025 season opener? Let us know in the comments below.