Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium


The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is an annual non-championship pre-season NASCAR Cup Series exhibition event held in February before the season-opening Daytona 500. The event was held each year at Daytona International Speedway from the race's inception in 1979 until 2021, after which it was moved to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022 until 2024, when it was announced the Clash would be moved to Bowman Gray Stadium in 2025. Previously at Daytona, the race, along with the ARCA Menards Series' season-opening Hard Rock Bet 200, served as the kickoff events for Daytona Speedweeks. The event is one of two non-points races on the Cup Series schedule, the other being the NASCAR All-Star Race.
The event has been sponsored by Anheuser-Busch for most of its history. In 2013, Anheuser-Busch moved their Daytona Speedweeks race sponsorship to the Duel races after the departure of longtime Duel title sponsor Gatorade. Cup Series title sponsor Sprint became the title sponsor for this race, which was renamed from "The Shootout" to "The Unlimited". When Sprint left NASCAR after the 2016 season, Advance Auto Parts became the title sponsor in 2017 and the event was renamed to its original name of "The Clash". Advance Auto Parts did not return as the title sponsor in 2020, which opened the door for Anheuser-Busch returned for a second stint as the title sponsor, and the Busch Clash name was brought back. This lasted until 2024, when Cook Out restaurant chain replaced Busch when the race moved to the Bowman Gray Stadium in 2025.
After being held on the Daytona oval for its entire history, the event was moved to the Daytona Road Course in 2021 as a result of logistics issues relating to both Super Bowl LV and the planned launch of the seventh-generation chassis. The following year, the event was moved out of Daytona International Speedway for the first time in its history, where it was held inside of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as part of launching the seventh-generation chassis. It was NASCAR's first race inside a sports stadium since a 1956 race at Soldier Field. The 2022 race also marked the first year that it was not an invitation-only event. For 2025, the event was moved to the Bowman Gray Stadium.

Background and history

The event was first known as the Busch Clash and was the brain child of Monty Roberts. Roberts was the brand manager of the newly formed Busch Beer and the race was seen as a way to promote the new brand. Roberts had been successful introducing Mercury into racing while working at Ford, and had also been a part of Ontario Motor Speedway. His experiences led him to believe that racing fans were loyal brand followers. The initial format was set up as a 50-mile sprint race, with no pit stops, with a field consisting of the previous season's pole position winners. Inviting the fastest drivers from the previous season headlined the event as the "fastest race" of the season. The race established an incentive for drivers to earn pole positions during the NASCAR season, which up to that time, still offered relatively tiny cash prizes. Likewise, at no time have pole winners earned bonus championship points.
The event was also seen as a way to expand the Speedweeks activities leading up to the Daytona 500. Previously, the weekend before the Daytona 500 featured only minor support events, and the Winston Cup competitors ordinarily would not have taken to the track until Wednesday. The Busch Clash allowed the Winston Cup regulars to kick off the week live on CBS.
The 1987 race, won by Bill Elliott, was completed at an average speed of 197.802 mph. It stands as the fastest sanctioned race in the history of NASCAR.
The 2013 race introduced a new format incorporating the results of fan voting into certain aspects of the race.
In 2017, the race was renamed the Advance Auto Parts Clash after Advance Auto Parts signed a multi-year deal to sponsor the event. The 2017 race was delayed to Sunday due to persistent rain, marking the first time the race has been run during the day since 2006.
In 2020, Busch Beer returned to assume naming rights for the race, once again dubbing it the Busch Clash.
In 2021, the race was run on the road course layout, originally intended as a temporary effort in order to have teams use a sixth-generation chassis when the seventh-generation chassis was to have debuted at the Daytona 500 that year. Teams would not have had enough seventh-generation cars available for the Daytona 500, so NASCAR intended to use the sixth-generation road course car at Daytona for cost savings.
Originally, it was planned that the 2022 Clash would return to a standard schedule, taking place with sixth-generation cars on the road course. That changed when the -22 NFL year moved Super Bowl LVI back a week and into the traditional Speedweeks date after the 2022 Daytona 500 date was announced. NASCAR then moved the renamed Busch Light Clash to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, meaning the event would be held away from Daytona for the first time, and during the NFL's off-week between the conference championship games and Super Bowl LVI, which was held in nearby Inglewood for the first time. In June 2022, NASCAR announced that the Clash at the Coliseum would return for 2023 and in September 2023, NASCAR announced again that the Clash at the Coliseum would return for 2024. The 2024 Clash was bumped up from the traditional Sunday race and moved to Saturday due to weather projections, thus making it general admission.
In 2025, the race was again renamed to the Cook Out Clash and moved to Bowman Gray Stadium, where it remains.

Race format

1979–1990

The race consisted of a single twenty-lap green flag sprint with no pit stops required. Caution flag laps would not count. A development series race, the Automobile Racing Club of America series, usually was featured as part of the event.

1991–1997

The race was broken into two ten-lap, green flag segments. The field was then inverted for the second ten-lap segment. Prize money was awarded for both segments for all positions. The race was broken up into two segments mainly because it had been lacking competitiveness since restrictor plates were introduced in 1988. The inversion rule added some needed excitement to the event, but its popularity continued to wane.

1998–2000

The event was renamed the Bud Shootout, and consisted of two 25-lap races, the Bud Shootout Qualifier at 11 am, and the Bud Shootout itself at 12 pm. One two-tire pit stop was required for each race. The winner of the qualifier advanced to the main event.

2001–2002

The event was renamed the Budweiser Shootout and expanded to a new distance, 70 laps. Caution laps would be counted, but the finish had to be under green, with the Truck Series green-white-checker rule used if necessary. A minimum of one two-tire green flag pit stop was required. The Bud Shootout Qualifier was discontinued because second round qualifying for Cup races had been eliminated.

2003–2008

The race was broken up into two segments: a 20-lap segment, followed by a ten-minute intermission, concluding with a 50-lap second segment. While a pit stop was no longer required by rule, a reduction in fuel cell size made a fuel stop necessary. Many drivers also changed two tires during their fuel stop, as the time required to fuel the car allowed for a two-tire change without additional delay.

2009–2012

The first segment was expanded to 25 laps, followed by the 50-lap second segment. The total race distance was 75 laps.

2013–2015

The race was divided into three segments, with online fan voting deciding certain aspects of the race specifics The total race distance was 75 laps. For 2013, the vote resulted in a mandatory four-tire pit stop, and no cars were eliminated. For 2014, voting set the starting lineup per final practice speeds and required mandatory pit stops after the second segment.

2016–2020

The race still kept its 75-lap distance, and returned to the 2003 format with one exception; the first segment was now 25 laps instead of 20 laps. The race originally consisted of a 20-lap/50-mile, "all-out sprint" for the previous season's pole position winners and added previous Daytona Pole Award winners, former Clash race winners, former Daytona 500 pole winners, and drivers who qualified for the preceding season's NASCAR playoffs. Any driver in the field had to have competed full-time in the Cup Series in 2016.

2021

The race was planned with the seventh-generation car changeover happening at the Daytona 500, which was postponed a year by supply chain and development issues from the pandemic lockdowns that severely altered the previous season. As a result, the race was moved to the road course using the previous sixth-generation cars to save teams resources and ensure the single-source new chassis would not be potentially destroyed in crashes during the event after the previous season's Clash ended with incidents that few cars were remaining, to curb the blocking that created massive crashes. A 200 kilometer race, the segments were 15 and 20 laps, respectively.

2022–2024

On September 14, 2021, NASCAR announced that the Busch Clash would move to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. On November 9, 2021, the format for the 2022 Clash was announced:
On December 21, 2022, NASCAR made further changes to the Busch Clash by expanding transfer positions from four to five cars in each heat, thereby expanding the field from 23 to 27 cars.
  • The event was open for all teams and drivers for the first time in its history.
  • A total of 350 laps in seven races.
  • The 36 charter teams and up to four open teams participated in qualifying. Should more than 40 teams enter the race, the four fastest times in qualifying determine who advances to the heat races.
  • Based on lap times, cars were put in one of four heat races of 25 laps each.
  • The top four or five drivers in each 25-lap heat advanced to the feature.
  • All non-advancing drivers in the 25-lap heats were assigned to one of two 50-lap "Last Chance Qualifiers."
  • The top three drivers in each 50-lap LCQ formed the 17th-21st or 21st-26th starting positions in the feature, with the top three in the 1st LCQ lining up in the odd-numbered positions and the top 3 in the 2nd LCQ in the even-numbered positions.
  • The highest driver in the previous year's Cup Series points standings not already advanced advanced to the feature in the last position.
  • The feature is 150 laps.