This past Sunday, the NASCAR season officially kicked off with a bang. The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was an amazing race to watch, full of crashes, beautiful overtakes and absolute pandemonium.
The 50-mile, 200-lap race was a spectacular race to watch. Fan favorite No. 6 Chase Elliott took pole position during Saturday’s qualifying while hopeful title contenders No. 11 Denny Hamlin and No. 46 Tyler Reddick started third and fourth. Current Cup Series title holder No. 22 Joey Logano started in seventh, and 2024 second-place finisher No.12 Ryan Blaney started at the back of the grid.
The Clash was different than a normal NASCAR race due to it having a “halftime” after the first 100 laps where the teams get to put on new tires, refuel or reshape the car. The reason for the halftime was because there was no “official” pit lane to pit for tires or refuel so they had to have a chance to equally pit for necessities.
On Lap 21, the first caution came out, and so did the safety car. No. 8 Kyle Busch got spun out by No. 4 Noah Gragson, who got hit by No. 99 Daniel Suárez, causing Busch to pit early, leaving him two laps behind first-place Elliott.
The only other crash that happened in the first half was at lap 78, with No. 34 Todd Gilliland pushing No. 24 William Byron into the wall causing him to spin out and bring out another caution and safety car. Byron’s spin out almost hit race leader Elliott, which would have ruined his race.
For the final 20 laps of the first half, there was some drama with Hamlin overtaking Elliott for the lead on lap 98 and Reddick overtaking Elliot for second place on lap 99. The first half was pretty tame for what a quarter-mile track should be, but the second half would give us some great moments. The driver with the most places gained in the first half was Blaney, who went from twenty-third on the grid to tenth in just 100 laps, he could possibly have a shot at the win.
On the third lap, after the break, No. 5 Kyle Larson and No. 19 Chase Briscoe took a spin causing them to lose a ton of places. Larson got bumped by No. 2 Austin Cindric, causing him to hit No. 88 Shane van Gisbergen, who clipped Briscoe.
Just six laps later, another crash happened with No. 20 Christopher Bell clipping No. 77 Carson Hocevar bringing out another safety car and caution. On lap 16 of the second half the third collision happened with Larson and Byron. The crash was caused by Briscoe bumping Hocevar, who bumped Larson who hit Byron.
Another crash happened on lap 121, with No. 23 Bubba Wallace hitting No. 6 Brad Keselowski, causing him to spin and giving Wallace the edge to pass easily. The slowing down of the cars caused Hocevar to spin again alongside No. 48 Alex Bowman. In the span of 21 laps, chaos ensued at Bowman Gray Stadium.
On lap 124, Hamlin was overtaken by Elliott with Blaney making his way up to fourth place with three-fourths of the race left. On lap 147, Blaney took second place from Hamlin, giving him a chance to attack race leader Elliott with just 50 laps to go.
Through the final 50 laps, Blaney fought long and hard to secure a win at the Clash, but his tires were too worn out, securing the race win for Elliott, whose dad also won a Clash in 1987.
Onto Daytona, Florida, where the Daytona 500 is held. For qualifying, there are two parts, the first being Wednesday Night Qualifying, where each driver puts in their fastest lap, and the top two drivers take first and second on the grid for the race.
Then there are the Thursday Night Duels which are two races at 7 and 8:45 that are 150-miles, comprised of 60-lap. The first duel makes up the inside places of three, five, seven etc. Duel two makes up the outside places of four, six, eight etc.
The race has three stages, with the first stage being laps one through 65, the second stage being laps 66-130 and the final stage being laps 131-200. If you are in the top 10 of a stage, then you get points from nine for second place down to one for tenth place. If you get first place for the stage, you get 10 points plus a playoff point, which I will get into a little later into the season.
For the first two stages, you get the 10 for first and nine for second place, but for the final stage, you get your final place. For first place, you get 40 points, in second 35 points, third 34 points until you get to thirty-fifth place where you get two points. If you finish thirty-sixth to fortieth place you only get one point.
You can watch qualifying on Amazon Prime Video, the Duels on FS1, the In-Car Camera on Max and the Daytona 500 will be held on Sun. Feb 13 at 8:45 p.m. on FS1.