Circle Tracks

Shane van Gisbergen spent the first half of the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray in the back half of the field. During that first time, he got into it with Austin Cindric and former Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez. At one point, he spun Cindric out in frustration and radioed, "People just kept running into me and I got sick of it."  In regards to Suarez, he added: "It's the third time the ...Keep readingView the full article

An emotional Ryan Preece couldn't stop himself from tearing up and dropping a celebratory F-Bomb as he claimed victory in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The Madhouse lived up to its name, as the race -- which was already postponed several days due to snow -- featured a record 17 cautions, and ended on wet-weather tires after sleet hit the track mid-race at around lap 100. Preece ...Keep readingView the full article

In a field of 18 desperate drivers, only the top two finishers + the points provisional (Alex Bowman) were going to transfer from the last-chance-qualifier (LCQ) into the main event. Bowman was happy to take the points provisional on offer to him (as the highest driver from the 2025 championship not yet locked in) instead of racing for it and risking his car, so the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ...Keep readingView the full article

After shaking down their cars in practice and cleaning up some ‘weepers’ of water caused by melting snow, qualifying got underway for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray. In this format, the 20 fastest drivers advance directly into the main event, while positions 21-38 will transfer to the last-chance qualifier. Only the top two finishers from the LCQ will get to take part in the pre-season ...Keep readingView the full article

For the next week and a half, Corey Lajoie is what he has been for much of this decade, a NASCAR Cup Series driver. With Brad Keselowski suffering from a broken right femur suffered in a fall on ice during a family skiing trip on December 18, Lajoie got the call to race in the Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in the famed RFK Racing No. 6. This is in addition to his previously scheduled ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin is not 100 percent right now after an emotional rollercoaster of a winter and he may not get there until after the end of the 2026 season concludes. That is because, in addition to the death of his father in a house fire that also hospitalized his mother, Hamlin also re-tore the right shoulder he got surgically repaired after the 2023 season. This happened during a fall while going ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR isn’t typically known as a winter sport but they’ve decided to use their tools in order to help Team USA go faster at the Winter Olympics. The NASCAR research and development team is building virtual models of Olympic athletes and creating life size 3D printed versions of them in order to do wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing in order to find tweaks to help the ...Keep readingView the full article

Giovanni Ruggiero, 19, is already a proven winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with Tricon Garage. Last year, he was victorious at Talladega and ended the year eleventh in the standings. He will again compete full-time in Trucks, but on Wednesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that he will also run the first two races of the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts (NOAPS) season. Ruggiero will ...Keep readingView the full article

In hindsight, the Cookout Clash could have been run on Tuesday but when the decision was made on Sunday to run the preseason exhibition on Wednesday, there were so many variables for numerous decision-makers to sort through. It’s objectively true that the snowstorm that passed through North Carolina was one of the five most impactful in the history of the state. In Winston-Salem, where the ...Keep readingView the full article

In a late move coming just weeks before the start of the 2026 season, NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway have decided to take the Charlotte Roval off the calendar, replacing the sixth race of The Chase with a traditional oval race. Marcus Smith, president of Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), confirmed the news first reported by The Athletic in an appearance on the Dale Jr. Download. He joined ...Keep readingView the full article

Dario Franchitti is a four-time IndyCar champion, three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500,  an overall winner in the Rolex 24 ,and even a Daytona 500 starter in NASCAR, but now he's about experience something truly chaotic -- NASCAR Trucks at a street course. The 52-year-old racer will compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series next month when the series joins IndyCar at the Grand Prix of ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR is returning to a version of a championship format it used from 2004 to 2013 but two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch ponders if this is really for the best. “I thought we got away from it for a reason in the past,” said Kyle Busch during a Monday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “So, I’m not real sure why we went back to it. The reasons why we sort of went away ...Keep readingView the full article

Work continues to prepare Bowman Gray Stadium for racing on Wednesday (weather-permitting). The pre-season exhibition race known as the 'Cook Out Clash' has already been postponed several days due to historic snowfall throughout North Carolina.  The track itself has already been cleared of snow, but work continues in the grandstands and surrounding areas as temperatures finally punch above ...Keep readingView the full article

Kaulig Racing is set to become the anchor factory team for Ram as the Stellantis brand returns to NASCAR for the first time since the 2012 season. They will have five trucks, featuring Brenden Queen, Daniel Dye, and Justin Haley as full-time drivers. The fourth truck will feature a rotating cast of all-star drivers beginning with Tony Stewart, while the fifth truck will be awarded to the winner ...Keep readingView the full article

The Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, originally scheduled for this weekend, and then postponed to Monday is now scheduled to take place on Wednesday night. A truly historic snowstorm affected the vast majority of North Carolina on Saturday and state resources are required for clean-up before anything can be devoted to the NASCAR Cup Series preseason exhibition event. While most of the ...Keep readingView the full article

Historic snowfall in North Carolina has forced NASCAR to postpone its pre-season exhibition race yet again. Originally, the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was supposed to take place over Saturday and Sunday. With a bomb cyclone dropping several inches of snow all across the state, NASCAR went from making The Clash a one-day event on Sunday to pushing it all to Monday. And while the storm ...Keep readingView the full article

The entire Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray will take place on Monday, February 2nd as the track is currently being hammered with a winter storm that is dropping several inches of snow. While Sunday is set to be clear, temperatures will remain below freezing and a wind chill that could be in the single-digits. As a result, NASCAR officials have rescheduled the event for Monday. On that day, the ...Keep readingView the full article

Weather-permitting, NASCAR will hold the Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Sunday, February 1st. For those who may be unfamiliar with this event's purpose on the schedule, 'The Clash' is a pre-season exhibition race that has been a part of the NASCAR calendar since 1979. Originally developed as a 20-lap sprint race at Daytona International Speedway and only featuring pole winners from the ...Keep readingView the full article

On November 24th of last year, it was announced that Sigma Performance Services (SPS Racing) was set to acquire AM Racing's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series program for the 2026 season. The team already has an ARCA Menard's Series operation and some late model cars. However, it was revealed on Friday this deal for a NOAPS team is no longer happening. "In November of 2025, an acquisition of ...Keep readingView the full article

After clearing whatever snow falls in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, over the next 24 hours, temperatures will be lucky to reach 30 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday when NASCAR plans to race at Bowman Gray. The low will be around 12, and the green flag does not fly until 8pm EST (unless they postpone the entire event until Monday). With some wind expected, the wind chill will bring the feel like ...Keep readingView the full article

The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary findings after a 43-day investigation into the aviation incident that killed NASCAR veteran Greg Biffle, his immediate family, two pilots and one other associated individual at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina. A full report will still take 12 to 18 additional months to complete. NTSB preliminary reports do not ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR's pre-season exhibition race known as 'The Clash' continues to face a major obstacle in the form of winter weather. As crews clear the track and surrounding area of snow and ice, another system is set to move into the area just in time for the race weekend. The storm is expected to dump four to eight inches of snow and will cause temperatures to plunge into the low 20s with a feel like ...Keep readingView the full article

The first race of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season will feature the usual stars of NCTS, but several other notable names. It's already been announced that NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart will join the Kaulig Racing Ram squad, making his first appearance in the Truck Series in almost 20 years. The field will also feature former Daytona 500 winners Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael ...Keep readingView the full article

On one hand, the 2025 season was a success for Josh Berry, in that it produced his first Cup Series victory and for the Wood Brothers no less. On the other hand, there were also stretches where a lot was left on the table and left them wondering what could have been. Specifically, the iconic No. 21 was amongst the fastest in the entire field in the first round of the playoffs, but Berry also ...Keep readingView the full article

John Hunter Nemechek is joining a stacked field for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. Nemechek, who competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series with Legacy Motor Club, will pilot the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota as he takes on double duty for the first official race weekend of the new season. Halmar-Friesen is swapping the owner points ...Keep readingView the full article