Chase Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports kicked off the 2025 NASCAR season with a win at Bowman Gray during NASCAR’s annual pre-season exhibition race The Clash.
Elliott qualified for the event by winning his heat race, putting him on the pole for the 200-lap feature event.
From the drop of the green flag, Elliott put on a clinic, leading 171 of the 200 laps,
Just before the halfway point, Denny Hamlin took the lead from Elliott on lap 96.
Hamlin would lead 19 laps before Tyler Reddick stole the lead for a single lap before Hamlin returned to the lead for another nine laps.
On lap 126 Elliott returned to the lead while Ryan Blaney tracked him down for the final 75 laps.
Blaney, who started last in the event had his charge to the front halted by Elliott.
Blaney, Hamlin, Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five at the quarter-mile track.
For Hendrick Motorsports this marks the first time they have led in The Clash since 2021 and their first Clash win since 2019.
Elliott’s performance at Bowman Gray set the record for most laps lead in The Clash, surpassing Ty Gibbs’ 84 laps led in the 2024 edition of the event.
Eleven cars finished on the lead lap, the least for the event since 2020 when six cars finished on the lead lap.
In prior years the event was held at Daytona International Speedway from 1979 to 2021 before a three-year stint at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 to 2024.
In 2025 the event made its way to Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time.
The last time the NASCAR Cup Series raced at Bowman Gray was 54 years ago in 1971 when Bobby Allison took his first-generation Ford Mustang to victory.
A race that was not officially recognized until October of 2024.
Bowman Gray which has held races in Winston-Salem since 1939 was recently renovated in preparation for the NASCAR event.
The renovations did not alter the nature of the track, many newcomers learned why Bowman Gray was dubbed The Madhouse.
With a field of 23 and an entry list of 39 chaos was inevitable.
20 drivers were able to qualify the day before the event through heat races, but the remaining 19 had to race once more in the Last Chance Qualifier (LQC)
Several teams saw some of if not all of their cars fail to qualify after a wreck field LQC ended with Kyle Larson, Josh Berry and Blaney making the main event.
14 of the 23 drivers in the main event were involved in at least one incident and several were involved in multiple.
The Clash is classified as an exhibition event and will not affect driver points for 2025, nor will it count as an official win.
However, Elliott became the fourth active driver to win both The Clash and NASCAR’s other exhibition The All-Star Race.
Elliott has bragging rights until NASCAR returns for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, 2025.
