With the flip of 23 ignition switches, the 2025 NASCAR season was underway at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last night. The first Cup Series race at the stadium since 1971 put on a show for the 17,000 fans in attendance and many more watching from home.
The season’s festivities began on Saturday evening when the field took on two practice sessions. The 54 of Ty Gibbs led the first session with the 9 of Chase Elliott taking the top spot in round two.
Later that night, the field was split up into four groups to determine the entry list as well as the starting lineup. The top five finishers from each heat would move on to the main event while the rest of the drivers would have to compete in a last chance qualifier to make it in.
Heat one saw Chase Elliott lock himself in with a first place finish while the 6 of Brad Keselowski, 4 of Noah Gragson, 8 of Kyle Busch, and 1 of Ross Chastain followed suit. Heat two welcomed the 17 of Chris Buescher, 19 of Chase Briscoe, 88 of Shane van Gisbergen, 23 of Bubba Wallace, and 99 of Daniel Suárez to the main event.
There were plenty of familiar faces finding their way to the front in heat three with the 11 of Denny Hamlin, 22 of reigning champion Joey Logano, 24 of William Byron, 77 of Carson Hocevar, and 48 of Alex Bowman advancing to the main. In the final heat race, the 45 of Tyler Reddick, 20 of Christopher Bell, 60 of Ryan Preece, 2 of Austin Cindric, and 34 of Todd Gilliland earned their way into the Clash.
The rest of the field found themselves in the last chance qualifier where only the top-two finishers would make it into the field for the main race. Ryan Blaney, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer, and AJ Allmendinger had to start the LCQ from the rear due to unapproved adjustments. This wasn’t a problem for Blaney, however, as he held the points provisional and was basically locked into the main no matter what. After 75 laps of short track racing, the 5 of Kyle Larson and 21 of Josh Berry found themselves in the top two spots, entering them into the main event alongside Blaney.
Since Chase Elliott was the winner of heat one, he found himself on the pole alongside Buescher. Once the green flag was flown, the top-ten quickly found themselves going single-file as expected. The first caution of the night came on lap 20 due to Kyle Busch taking a spin after some contact with Noah Gragson. He visited the pits and came back a lap down.
Elliott once again led the field to green and it took only 30 more laps for him to catch the tail of the field. On lap 78, William Byron found himself in a spin in turn four just before being caught by the leader. Just three laps prior to the 100-lap break, Elliott finally found himself in some trouble when Hamlin passed him for the lead.
After the break, Hamlin and Reddick led the field to green for just a single lap before Larson took a spin in turn three. It only took five more laps after the restart before the caution came out yet again. This time for the 77 of Carson Hocevar who took a spin in turn three after some contact with Christopher Bell.
The field just couldn’t seem to keep it going after the constant restarts as the caution came out a third time on lap 115 for Larson and Byron spinning in turn two. This time, they made it a whopping five laps before Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, and Carson Hocevar each went for a spin in turn one.
Finally, the green flag flew for more than five laps as Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin began a battle for the lead. On lap 127, Elliott got the lead back and now had to fend off a charging Ryan Blaney who was in second place after starting dead last. Elliott was able to hold off Blaney for the last 50 laps thanks to some lapped traffic, and Elliott took home the Bobby Allison Memorial Trophy for the first Clash victory of his career.
An exciting, caution-filled race set the tone for what’s sure to be an exciting 2025 season. With new faces on new teams, a switched-up schedule, and even some new tracks in the coming weeks, 2025 is looking to be a great year for the sport. Be sure to tune in on Thursday, February 13th for the Duels at Daytona, and the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 16th.
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