The NASCAR Clash, the season opening race of the Cup Series schedule that has rotated around sites in recent years, will return to Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to start the 2026 season on January 31 and February 1.

The Cook Out Clash at ‘The Madhouse’ this past February was the first Cup Series race at the track since 1971. Chase Elliott, 2020 Cup Series champion, won the main event at the venue which was first built in 1937 and is the longest-running weekly racetrack in NASCAR history.

“We wrote a new chapter in the storied history of motorsports at Bowman Gray Stadium with the Cook Out Clash this year,” said Joey Dennewitz, NASCAR Regional managing director. “As NASCAR’s first weekly racetrack, we are proud to bring the 2026 Cook Out Clash back to the original home to grassroots racing. Thanks to the city of Winston-Salem and Winston-Salem State University for their continued partnership.”

In 1949, Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, two founding fathers of NASCAR, brought motorsports to Bowman-Gray as the first weekly racetrack and first paved racetrack that NASCAR competed on. The racetrack hosted 29 NASCAR races from 1958 to 1971 and  hosted several East Series races from 2011 to 2015. In 2024, NASCAR took over management of racing operations at Bowman Gray Stadium in partnership with the city of Winston-Salem.

“The City of Winston Salem is deeply honored to have been chosen to host the 2026 Cook Out Clash,” said Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines. “The 2025 race was an immensely successful event for all parties involved. We will work hard to ensure that the 2026 Cook Out Clash is even more successful.”

Based in the Winston-Salem area since 1989, Cook Out is the entitlement partner for the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway and the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway..

Today, NASCAR announced the Cook Out Clash will return to Bowman Gray Stadium as the opening exhibition event for the 2026 season. Following the sold-out success of this year’s Cook Out Clash, the first NASCAR Cup Series exhibition race of the 2026 season will return to the historic venue on Saturday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1.

The Cook Out Clash at ‘The Madhouse’ will be broadcast by FOX Sports.

“We wrote a new chapter in the storied history of motorsports at Bowman Gray Stadium with the Cook Out Clash this year,” said Joey Dennewitz, Managing Director, NASCAR Regional. “As NASCAR’s first weekly racetrack, we are proud to bring the 2026 Cook Out Clash back to the original home to grassroots racing. Thanks to the City of Winston-Salem and Winston-Salem State University for their continued partnership at ‘The Madhouse’.”

“The City of Winston Salem is deeply honored to have been chosen to host the 2026 Cook Out Clash,” said City of Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines. “The 2025 race was an immensely successful event for all parties involved. We will work hard to ensure that the 2026 Cook Out Clash is even more successful.”

Cook Out, one of the fastest growing family-owned restaurant chains in the nation, will return as the entitlement partner for the 2026 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Based in the Winston-Salem area since 1989, Cook Out is known for its Cook Out burgers as part of the “best combos in town.” The restaurant chain has 350 locations across 11 states.

“We are proud to support the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in our backyard in Winston-Salem,” said Jeremy and Morris Reaves, CEO and Founder of Cook Out. “We look forward to bringing our NASCAR racing family together in our community once again with the Cook Out Clash. Last year was so amazing and we can’t wait to do it again!”

Cook Out has a strong presence in NASCAR as it is the entitlement partner for the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway, and the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway where it also serves as the Official Quick Service Restaurant. It is also a proud sponsor of the NASCAR Youth Series and is an active sponsor at the grassroots level.

“Cook Out is an amazing partner that continues to have a positive impact across NASCAR,” said Justin Swilling, Project Lead for the Cook Out Clash. “Their support continues to take our events to the next level, and we look forward to working together to make this year’s Cook Out Clash another memorable sold-out event.”

Built in 1937, Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile short track, holds a special place in NASCAR history as the longest-running weekly racetrack. In 1949, Bill France Sr. and Alvin Hawkins, two founding fathers of NASCAR, brought motorsports to the facility as the first weekly racetrack and first paved racetrack that NASCAR competed on. In 2024, NASCAR took over the long-term management of racing operations at Bowman Gray Stadium in partnership with the City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The racetrack hosted 29 NASCAR Grand National, now NASCAR Cup Series, races from 1958 to 1971. Bowman Gray Stadium has hosted many NASCAR legends including Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Glen Wood, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, and others. Petty won his 100^th NASCAR Grand National race in the 1969 Myers Brothers 250 at the racetrack.

More recently, Bowman Gray Stadium hosted several East Series races from 2011 to 2015. Ben Kennedy, great grandson of Bill France Sr., won an East Series race there in 2013. Other winners include two-time NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes and Cup Series drivers Ryan Preece and Corey LaJoie.

This year’s Cook Out Clash was the first Cup Series race at the historic track since 1971. Chase Elliott, 2020 Cup Series champion, won this year’s Cook Out Clash. With a history of intense competition, NASCAR is proud to bring the Cup Series back for the Cook Out Clash at ‘The Madhouse.’

For more information and to get on the list to purchase tickets for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, visit NASCARClash.com. To learn more about the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season with weekly modified, sportsman, street stock and stadium stock competition, visit bowmangrayracing.com.

With the recent release of the F1 movie, we figured it was a good time to reflect on our favorite movies about racing. Any form of competition is ripe for the big screen, and both two- and four-wheeled motorsports—with their colorful personalities, awe-inspiring feats of engineering, and life-or-death stakes—have yielded more movies than we can count. Some of them are wildly inaccurate, of course, and others are bad in a charming way. (A few famous Pixar ones even have talking cars.) We gravitate to movies that inspired us, many of which are based on real-life events, and ones that made us laugh. Of course, there are a few exceptions—you’ll have to read on to find out.

When you’re done, give us your vote in the comments below.

Dust to Glory (2005)

Dana Brown’s film documenting the Baja 1000 totally changed my perspective on racing. The hour-and-a-half film featured those helicopter follow videos of motorcycles and trophy trucks skipping across the tan Mexican desert that just captivated my young brain. I had never ridden a motorcycle before watching yet could still picture myself holding the throttle wide open running along the beach like Mike “Mouse” McCoy on his Honda XR650R. That storyline is probably part of why I bought an XR650R years later and still own XRs and dream of desert racing today. — Kyle Smith

Le Mans (1971)

There will never be another movie like Le Mans. It’s the antithesis of a stereotypical Hollywood car-action flick, it’s rife with real racing footage (plus stunt work that proved to be just as dangerous), and the plot is thin but universal enough to overlay almost any thematic message you want onto the hypnotic, kaleidoscopic cinematography. Le Mans is an art movie that used Porsche 917s as camera cars; what else needs to be said? — Alex Sobran

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

I have a personal connection to The Art of Racing in the Rain, an appreciation of Heart Like a Wheel, and respect for Le Mans, Grand Prix, On Any Sunday, and the period piece Two-Lane Blacktop, but the stupid/favorite motorsports movie I keep coming back to is 2006’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which seems to air somewhere most every weekend. NASCAR was ripe for a send-up, and this comedy, thanks to stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, and the script by Ferrell and director Adam McKay, dissects its past and present and makes it, at least once in a while, downright hilarious. Once you’ve seen the whole thing, it’s a very easy film to just drop in on, watch for 15 minutes, and then move on. And I still do. — Steven Cole Smith

The Love Bug (1968)

Sorry, folks, but I can’t get into films based on motorsport. If I want motorsport, I want to see it in person (or on live TV). It’s too easy to fib or stretch the truth with dramatic license on the silver screen, and that really grinds my gears. If I am watching a movie about racing, it better be cute and charming like The Love Bug. — Sajeev Mehta

The Lindsey Lohan version, I’m assuming? — Andrew Newton

IS THERE ANY OTHER?? — Sajeev Mehta

Rush (2013)

In my early days of Formula 1 fandom, I started to kick around the internet for important stories from F1’s past. When I came across the harrowing tale of Niki Lauda’s crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix, it sort of naturally led me over to the 2013 film Rush.

Is it a little over-dramatized? Probably. But I don’t think that many folks are going to care. In fact, I remember thinking that this film spanned the gap between die-hard fans and first-timers — it seemed like a flick that would get pretty much everyone a little more interested in Formula 1, even if that interest would be temporary. I still hold it in high regard as a captivating film, if something that maybe lacks the pure motorsports panache of some of the other movies on this list. — Nathan Petroelje

Senna (2010)

I have a hard time watching racing movies. Yes, I am capable of suspending disbelief, but there’s only so many “oh, now he’s gonna floor it…” moments or extra shifts or CGI-generated physics messes that one person can take, at least if the movie has any pretense of being serious. There’s not much substitute for real visuals, which is why Senna, the 2010 documentary, does it for me. It’s generally a very good account of the Brazilian’s story, and the archival footage they assembled for it is absolutely riveting. — Eddy Eckart

Days of Thunder (1990)

I’m putting Days of Thunder in pole position, even though it’s a pretty terrible, cliché-strewn movie: The two rivals who want to win so bad they’ll race on track, in rental cars, and even in wheelchairs at the hospital. The standard cinematic “just change up a gear to overtake” mechanic and Tom Cruise facing his demons to win the day. In other words, your standard racing film formula. Nonetheless it’s an entertaining enough way to spend a couple of hours, and that’s what cinema is all about. If the rumoured sequel does happen, I’ll be in pole position to watch that as well. — Nik Berg

Six Pack (1982) and The Last American Hero (1973)

Days of Thunder is my fav. Pound for pound, it’s the best racing movie out there, but let me suggest two more obscure cuts at the top of my list:

• Six Pack — Country musician Kenny Rogers plays Brewster Baker, a down-and-out racer who has his car stolen by a gang of orphan children. Turns out the kids were working for corrupt sheriff “Big John,” who sends Brewster to jail. Then, the kids help the driver break out of jail, and he reluctantly takes them under his wing as his misfit race team.

• The Last American Hero — Loosely based on the Tom Wolfe biography of Junior Johnson, which shares a similar name, Jeff Bridges plays Junior Jackson. Part biopic, part ’70s silver screen B-movie, Last American Hero is one of the coolest-looking racing movies, with plenty of gritty grassroots circle track footage. — Cameron Neveu

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

There are bad movies, and there are deliciously bad movies. Much like cheeseburgers, I guess. For years I only knew the Fast and Furious franchise as Mission: Impossible, but with Vin Diesel instead of Tom Cruise, and exotic cars that I recognized only from Instagram. At one point in my first year after college, I figured I should brush up on my American car culture. I grew up watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, so I figured I’d have just as much fun with a bad movie — I heard they were bad — as a good one. Wow, was I surprised. None of them even felt like movies until I got to Tokyo Drift, which was bad-funny, in the best possible way. (That accent!) The wildly customized cars sold me, even as the plot fell apart around them. I would like Han’s FD very much, thank you — you can buy it here, and ship it to Detroit.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to buy a Costco-sized pack of Nerds Gummy Clusters, and a bottle of something strong, and bribe my husband to watch the movie with me. He has no idea what he’s in for … — Grace Jarvis

Blues Brothers (1980)

Two brothers must team up with Cab Calloway to raise money to keep the orphanage where they were raised from being shuttered while evading Nazis, an jilted RPG-wielding ex-girlfriend, a country music band, and law enforcement from what appears to be the majority of Chicago and its suburbs. It’s a tale as old as time. Not only is it a racing film, as the duo makes a hasty exit from a concert venue to deliver a tax check in time, but the Blues Brothers is also the best musical ever put on film. — Brandan Gillogly

NASCAR teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, whose lawsuit last October against NASCAR and CEO Jim France alleging “monopolistic practices” has been the sport’s biggest subplot of the past year, appear poised to enter uncharted — and unchartered — territory.

Though it’s not time for the organizations to panic yet, there are some ripple effects from a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Fourth Circuit that could turn into tidal waves.

Front Row and 23XI have been racing as chartered teams — which comes with guaranteed entry into Cup Series races and financial incentives — since filing the lawsuit after refusing to sign a new charter deal NASCAR presented last season. The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday denied the team’s request for an “en banc” — or full-court — rehearing of a smaller three-judge panel’s decision last month to overturn a district court’s decision and wipe away a preliminary injunction that had allowed the teams to do just that. With Wednesday’s ruling came the potential loss of the teams’ status as charter (or franchise) NASCAR organizations.

Barring further developments, the two teams could now lose their combined six charters (they have three cars each) next week before the NASCAR race at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware.

What does that mean? First of all, a significant financial setback. Charter teams receive millions more per year in race winnings than the non-charter (“open”) teams, and the organizations may now have to repay all the money they have earned with their charters so far this season.

Second, they have to qualify for each race instead of having guaranteed entries. That’s no big deal, though, as long as more than a full field does not show up (only two of 19 races have had fields that exceeded the limit this season).

Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing owns three NASCAR charters, as does Front Row Motorsports. All six could be gone by the time the cars get to Dover next week. (Logan Riely / Getty Images)

Third — and this could perhaps be the biggest one — 23XI driver Tyler Reddick, a Championship 4 participant last year who is currently fifth in the point standings, could become the hottest free agent in years.

As revealed last December during the teams’ request for a preliminary injunction that would allow them to race as charter teams for 2025, Reddick’s contract has a clause that states 23XI must provide him with a chartered car, or he can sign with someone else.

Would Reddick leave midseason? Would another team swoop in and make him an offer at this point? You can scoff at the possibility, but NASCAR racing is big business. Reddick could potentially fall into the lap of a team looking to make a move and snag a top-10 talent for its future.

What’s to prevent a team from moving on from an underperforming driver on the hot seat, like a Justin Haley at Spire Motorsports (31st in points with only one top-10 finish this season), and making a play for Reddick?

Whether you think it sounds unrealistic or not, these are now the stakes for the unchartered teams — and a major reason why the teams’ attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, argued so hard for a preliminary injunction in the first place. He wanted to show irreparable harm in case the lack of an injunction cost the team one of its drivers or sponsors, and that’s closer than ever to reality.

While Kessler and his clients still have their eye firmly on the Dec. 1 trial date, in which the district court will hear their claim of NASCAR being an illegal monopoly, these smaller motions could suddenly have a major impact.

“We are disappointed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny our request for a full rehearing,” Kessler said in a statement. “This decision has no bearing on the strength of our antitrust case, which we look forward to presenting at trial. We are committed to racing this season as we continue to fight for more competitive and fair terms for all teams to ensure the future of the sport, and remain fully confident in our case.”

Kessler is confident the lost charters will ultimately be returned to the teams as part of the outcome at trial or as part of a settlement. NASCAR won’t be selling the charters in the meantime (in case they lose and have to give them back), so no one would have them for the rest of this season.

At Dover, theoretically, there could be 30 chartered cars along with 10 “open” slots (instead of the normal 36 charters and four open). As of Wednesday afternoon, that had not yet been officially determined.

But even if the charters are returned eventually at trial, it wouldn’t undo the potential damage caused by losing them now. What if Reddick does leave? What if one of the team’s cars does miss a race? NBA legend Michael Jordan, 23XI co-owner, has a deep bankroll to keep the team afloat despite the financial hit, but could there be long-term implications with departing employees?

Those are the types of things that could happen now. And maybe they won’t. But the possibility has to be unsettling for teams with still half a season to race until the trial begins.

(Top photo of 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick and owner Michael Jordan: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

SAN BRUNO, Calif. – The West Coast Conference has partnered with Cope Family Racing and will be represented on the team’s car driven by Will Rodgers in the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 Xfinity Series race on Saturday, July 12, at 1:30 PT.
 
The West Coast Conference mark will be represented in three areas of the No. 70 Chevrolet Camaro entry, including the deck lid and specific placement on each side near the back window.
 
Saturday’s 79-lap race will feature 38 drivers racing at the historic northern California road course. The race will be televised live on The CW Network, with live radio coverage on the Performance Racing Network.
 
West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson will be in attendance for Saturday’s race, supporting the team. 
 
“We are excited for the opportunity to partner with Cope Family Racing and Will Rodgers and have the West Coast Conference represented during this weekend’s Xfinity Series event at Sonoma Raceway,” Jackson said. “We look forward to being a part of the No. 70 team and featuring one of the premier collegiate conferences on the car as they race in front of a nationally televised audience during one of the series’ two events in the West Coast Conference footprint.”
 
The West Coast Conference has collaborated with ref-ology and Blast Equality Collab as a partner of the No. 70 car this weekend. Together, this collaboration is uniting motorsports with purpose—promoting leadership, fairness, and opportunity both on the track and in the community. Founded by Shelley Russi, ref-ology focuses on helping referees master the inner game so they can serve the outer game with practice, presence and reflection. Their non-profit arm, Blast Equality Collab, delivers real-time leadership practice through sports.
 
For more information, follow @WCCsports on X, Instagram, and Facebook, and follow Cope Family Racing at @CopeFamilyRacin and Rodgers at @WillRodgers65.
 
 
About the West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference was formed in 1952 and has evolved and grown to become a nationally recognized and competitive force in Division I intercollegiate athletics. The West Coast Conference is fueled by the conviction to achieve its goals with strong core values of integrity, respect, collaboration, innovation, and inclusiveness that create a holistic student-athlete experience. The conference sponsors 16 sports with a three-state footprint that includes Gonzaga, LMU, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Seattle. We Create Champions on the field of competition and leaders in life.
 
About Cope Family Racing
Cope Family Racing is a full-time entry in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series with the No. 70 Chevrolet! CFR is a family organization of seasoned racing professionals from all positions and series with goals of driver development, consistent performance and quality experience. From karts to NASCAR, our motto is to identify talent, harness it and create champions.