What format for NASCAR's return to Bowman Gray?

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season opens this weekend with the traditional Clash, a non-championship round scheduled between the NFL conference finals and the Super Bowl, before starting the official season in earnest at the Daytona 500.

Published 28/01/2025 à 12:30

Michael Duforest

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What format for NASCAR's return to Bowman Gray?

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Chevrolet engines, Toyota and Ford will have been silent for 83 days by the time Clash weekend begins this Saturday. Born in 1979 at Daytona, the event was originally intended to showcase drivers who had taken pole position the previous season. This resulted in events with reduced fields, but which were rightly marketed as featuring the "fastest drivers in the NASCAR "In recent years, with the arrival of the Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the event was open to all drivers who were part of franchised teams, and this will be the case again this year.

The 36 drivers will be divided into three groups, and each group will have three practice sessions on the Bowman Gray oval, a legendary track in the NASCAR regional series, but which is only 400m long. This is half the size of the two smallest ovals on the Cup Series calendar, Bristol and Martinsville. The times of the third and final practice session will determine the starting grids for the qualifying races, which will also take place on Saturday. Four rounds will be contested, with the top five in each qualifying for the final on Sunday. For the others, a last-chance round will be held early Sunday evening, with 75 laps on the program. The top two finishers at the end of this race will go to the final, as well as the highest-ranked driver in the 2024 championship who has not managed to validate his ticket.

So there will be 23 drivers lining up on the grid for a 200-lap event, with the obligation to finish the race under the green flag. A break will also be introduced at the halfway point. The winner will not score any championship points, but he will be able to arrive at the Daytona 500, the most important and prestigious round of the season, with a confidence that his opponents will not have...

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