FOX Sports’ 2025 NASCAR Season Gets Underway With Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium

The short-track venue’s history with NASCAR dates to 1949

While much of the FOX Sports team is already in New Orleans preparing for Super Bowl LIX, the broadcaster’s NASCAR production team will be at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC, this weekend, firing up its 2025 season with Sunday’s 2025 Cook Out Clash at the .25-mile oval track, which holds only 17,000 race fans.

“When they announced that the race would be at Bowman Gray Oval,” says George Grill, field technical producer, FOX Sports, “we didn’t know what kind of facilities we’re going to have and how much NASCAR was going to have to put into it to get the facility ready. But they put some money into it and have done a lot of upgrades for things like lighting, which was a big concern for the broadcast.”

Fox Sports and NASCAR kicks off the 2025 season with short-track racing at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina this weekend.

The three previous editions of The Clash had been held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A short-track race, it is always intense, and, although the crowd may be smaller this year, it is sold out, and its overall feel will be more intimate because the track won’t be swimming inside a massive stadium. Game Creek Video Cleatus mobile unit is onsite to handle production duties, as it does for all FOX Sports NASCAR races.

“In L.A.,” says Grill, “we were out in the parking lot, and you had to cross a lot of things to get in there. Here, things like fiber aren’t a big deal because the distances aren’t that long. The one thing that is challenging is the TV booth, because it’s more like a PA booth for high school football.”

The Fox NASCAR compound is located right next to the stadium for this weekend’s NASCAR race.

The track at Bowman Gray Stadium is unique in that it is an oval and the grandstands on one end extend onto the track a bit. That promises some more excitement with respect to the racing and, in turn, more fun for fans in the stands.

Making turns at the far side of the track, cars will encounter pinch points because the stands reach out onto the track.

NASCAR has a long history of races at the track. The first NASCAR race there was in 1949, and it is the longest-standing track to hold weekly NASCAR-sanctioned races (the last time a Cup race was there, however, was 1971, which is why this race is so highly anticipated in racing circles).

“They’ve had car races here since 1949, which is right after NASCAR [was founded],” adds Grill. “A lot of the backbone of NASCAR was formed in North Carolina. So there is a lot of history here.”

Another advantage of having The Clash in North Carolina is that a majority of the production crew for NASCAR races live there, making travel and logistics a bit more efficient. “It’s easier for a lot of the folks,” notes Grill.

After The Clash, the team will turn its attention to the Daytona 500, which will be held the weekend of Feb. 15 (trucks are expected to arrive in Daytona next Wednesday).

Beyond that, Grill sees the biggest change with respect to a race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, TX: “The track is being shortened for NASCAR, and the laps will be 90 seconds shorter, which will be great for the broadcast because, previously, it was 2 minutes and 30 seconds per lap. There will also be higher speeds because they won’t have to go into a turn where they have to slow down to 35 mph.”