The future of the Clash, a surprisingly good run at Bowman Gray Stadium and more chatter from Sunday's exhibition race.

WINSTON-SALEM -- The 2025 NASCAR season unofficially gets underway on Sunday night, as some of the top drivers head to the legendary Bowman Gray Stadium for the Cook Out Clash. After three years racing at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, NASCAR elected to move its premier preseason event to a more traditional venue.

The field was grouped into four heat races based on speed, and it came easily for the Hendrick Motorsports star who returned to the playoffs. Elliott held off the pack in an eventful opening heat race, earning the pole position for the Clash at Bowman Gray that is scheduled to go green at around 8:20 p.m. Sunday.

Even though Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray wasn't a points-paying event, the race gave us our first real glimpse into how new driver and team pairings will work out in 2025, as a result, the race has impacted the weekly NASCAR Power Rankings.

NASCAR season gets underway Sunday with the Cook Out Clash, a preseason exhibition race, at historic Bowman Gray Stadium. Here's all the info.

When NASCAR first announced that it was hauling its high-octane roadshow into the tight confines of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 2022, the sport’s purists reacted as if someone had suggested installing a Starbucks inside the Sistine Chapel. The rest of the world watched with morbid curiosity, waiting for the inevitable disaster.