Cookout Clash Review

Well, the weekend has came and went for the first “unofficial” week of the 2025 NASCAR season and if anything it gave us a pleasant preview of what’s to come this season, which is intense racing. Coming into the weekend I didn’t know what to expect out of Bowman Gray stadium but the place put on a show Sunday evening. There was passing, bump and runs, tempers flaring, drivers even making the outside line work, and a fan favorite in victory lane to cap off the event. Let’s get into what all happened during the Cookout Clash.

The night started off with an eventful LCQ that saw Ty Dillion and Zane smith lead the field to the green of the 75 lap race. The two were side by side until Ty gave a bump to Zane smith to move on by. Shortly after Ty Gibbs was able to get to the inside and pass Ty Dillion for the win, immediately followed by contact between Austin Dillion and Ty Dillion. So much for being brothers. In the mist of the chaos Kyle Larson was able to pass multiple cars to move up to 3rd shortly before the 1st caution for a Ty Dillion spin by way of Erik Jones. This led to the first restart which saw Ty Gibbs start on the inside and Kyle Larson on the outside, which at the time was a interesting move that proved to be somewhat effective throughout the night. While he didn’t take the lead Larson was able to stay in P2 before a caution for a Zane Smith spin. The next restart saw Larson restart 3rd behind Ty Gibbs and it wasn’t long before he used the bumper to take the lead. This was the turning point of Ty Gibbs race as he wasn’t able to recover.

The race sort of had a sizable green flag run before a Garrett Smithley spin and then cautions breed cautions slowly started to happen. It started with Josh Berry getting into Ty Gibbs, then the two Spire cars spun for another caution, followed by the biggest crash of the night on lap 62 which was the 47 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr and the 50 of Burt Myers making contact sending Myers sliding across the infield into the outside wall, bringing out the red and ending Myers night. Myers is a regular at Bowman Gray so the fans showed some displeasure at Stenhouse while under red. After we went back green but not for long as the 7 of Justin Haley found the rear bumper of Ty Gibbs sending him around. This was followed by Ty giving Haley a shot to the side of his car under yellow which actually launched Ty’s car into the air. The next restart saw contact between Erik Jones and Kyle Larson as they even got 3 wide off of turn 4 but the contact sent Jones around and he ultimately had too much damage to continue. Berry and Larson were able to restart and check out before Larson was able to pass by Berry and win the LCQ while Berry was able to finish 2nd. as for the points provisional, Ryan Blaney was able to lock that up and even ran a few laps in the LCQ before pulling off track.

Now we get to the main event. 23 cars, 200 laps, only 1 winner. Chase Elliot let the field to the green and immediately became the class of the field clearing everybody by about a car length or 2 by lap 2. That’s a big gap at a track this small. We went 21 laps before the first caution of the race as Kyle Busch was spun by Noah Gragson who received a push from Daniel Suarez. The race stayed fairly clean up until lap 79 when Todd Gilliland and William Byron made contact and Byron spun right in front of Chase Elliot. Another restart and this time after a few laps Denny Hamlin was able to make the pass for the lead. Tyler Reddick was able to get to 2nd before the halftime break. After the break there was a bit of mid pack beef as Carson Hocevar bumped Christopher Bell and Bell repaid the favor the very next corner with help from Joey Logano. The next restart saw a few laps of green before Hendrick teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson both spun. One thing to note in the middle of the chaos, Ryan Blaney was moving through the field as he started dead last and by lap 120 he was in 4th. This was also around the time that Chase Elliot’s car came to life as he gave the bumper to Denny Hamlin to get to the preferred line and was eventually able to clear Hamlin. Blaney was able to clear Hamlin for 2nd and chased down Chase Elliot but wasn’t able the pass done. Chase Elliot was able to hang on and win the race after dominating the whole weekend. Ryan Blaney finished 2nd, Denny Hamlin 3rd, Joey Logano 4th, and Bubba Wallace finished 5th.

This was a fun race overall and was better in my opinion than the clash at LA the past few years. This was a success as NASCAR returned to one of its original tracks with its biggest series and put on a show. The question remains however, where does NASCAR go from here? Do they return to this track next year? Do they try and go to another grassroots short track in the area? Does NASCAR try to go international with the exhibition? Who knows what the future holds, but one thing for certain is that this event delivered.