CONCORD, N.C. - While Bowman Gray Stadium hasn't hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race since 1971, it won't exactly be new for all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers when they compete in the 2025 NASCAR Clash on Sunday.
From 2011-2015, the site was host to an annual event in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Kyle Larson each participated in at least one of those five races.
But with a decade or more having passed, what could the four possibly remember about the quarter-mile short track in Winston-Salem, N.C.? One that promises all of the physicality and close-quarters racing the event had at the Los Angeles Coliseum over the past three years, but all in front of a grassroots, race-savvy crowd?
Well, it varies.
One thing that doesn't, however, is each driver's excitement toward running the preseason opener a little closer to home and in a more traditional, NASCAR setting.
"It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited with how close that is," Bowman said. "I've raced there but I've also sat in the stands there and the atmosphere there is unlike anywhere else we go. I've never seen the pace car driver get flipped off anywhere except for there. So, pretty excited to go there and run a Cup car. It's going to be a lot of fun."
"I just think people are going to be really excited for that and I think that's going to last for more than a year in my opinion," Elliott added. "So, hopefully it just carries the energy a little further before they have to switch it up again."
Elliott finished 18th and sixth in two starts at Bowman Gray in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Bowman meanwhile, came home 12th in 2011 in his only race.
In terms of which driver fared the best of the current Hendrick Motorsports stable, that would be Larson, who managed a fifth-place finish after sitting on the pole in 2011.
"I don't remember a ton about the race," Larson admitted. "I remember qualifying just slipping and sliding and I just remember basically dirt tracking it for a couple of laps, just trying to build heat in the tires. So, just being sideways for a couple of laps. But then in the race, I'd never raced on a track that small in a stock car, so it was difficult, similar to Martinsville it just does not suit me. So, I could never quite get into a rhythm. I still think I finished OK ... just kind of went backwards and probably tried to survive."
Byron took away some of the same things in his lone start at Bowman Gray, a 15th-place run in 2015.
"I don't remember a lot about it other than just the apron has a little bit of a weird transition, it's very small," Byron said. "The track is even smaller than the Coliseum, so I'll be interested to see if that expands at all for us, if they move some things around. But I think that it's just a really tight quarters race track and it's going to create some bumping and banging naturally because that's the only way to pass."
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And while the race should present a similar style of racing compared to three years at the Coliseum, the atmosphere should prove to be much different in front of a small, but full crowd anxious to have more racing in the state of North Carolina.
"I think having that thing out there in LA was a great thought, I commend them for the effort in doing it, but I think the shine wore off of it after the first year and I think that (Bowman Gray) is a place that has some historical value from a NASCAR perspective," Elliott said.
In fact, all four echoed sentiments of excitement when it came to the prospects of running another race in front of a de facto, "home crowd". But maybe none of them were eager as Bowman who sarcastically pointed to additional, financial incentives for himself.
"I'm just excited. Obviously, owning half of the race track with my colleague Gray, being able to split all the profits from the event is going to be really good for me," Bowman deadpanned. "And, since my name is already on the race track, I think it's only fitting that I have to win so, yeah, that's going to be really good.