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.

NASCAR returns to its roots Sunday with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, which last played host to a Cup Series event more than 50 years ago. After three years on a temporary short track at the Los Angeles Coliseum, NASCAR has moved The Clash to the 0.25-mile track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, known as “The Madhouse.”

The Clash was once about getting a coveted coat. That might seem hard to conceive now for an event that has crisscrossed the country twice in the past three years while mushrooming into a preseason extravaganza,