The annual unofficial start of the NASCAR season is there.
The shock of Sunday (8 p.m. he, Fox) will be held at the Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, in North Carolina. This is the first time that the event without points has been held on the a quarter of a quarter of a quarter after having taken place for three years on the temporary track of a quarter of a mile inside the Los Angeles Coliseum.
For the uninitiated, Bowman-Gray is known for his bumper bumper races on a weekly basis and his viral conflicts, uh between the drivers. It is very unlikely that we will see pilots from the series of cups in a confrontation on Sunday evening, but expect contacts.
Here is an overview of the Sunday evening race format. After the confrontation, the next action on track for the Cup series arrives on February 12 while the preparation begins for Daytona 500 on February 16.
Main event
The Sunday race will be 200 laps and will have 23 of the 39 cars entered in the race. Only the green flag towers will count during the main event and during all the heat races that led there. If there are a lot of accidents and warnings, the race could take some time.
Practice groups
The field was divided into three groups of 13 drivers for practice. The drivers were divided via the position of their owners during the 2024 season. Here is how the groups shake
Group 1: William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson, Ty Dillon, Austin Dillon, Ryan Preece, Tim Brown
Group 2: Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Shane Van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Erik Jones, Justin Haley, John Hunter Nemechek, Burt Myers
Group 3: Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., AJ Allmending, Michael McDowell, Cody Ware, Garrett Smithley
Qualification and heat races
The drivers will qualify for each of the four heat races of 25 laps via their fastest towers during training. The driver who displays the fastest practice of practice among all groups will obtain the post for the first heat. The second fastest driver will have the post for the second heat and the third fastest driver will obtain the post for the third heat and the fourth fastest driver will obtain the post for heat n ° 4.
Three rounds will have 10 drivers while we will have new.
The practices start at 6 p.m. HE on Saturday with the heat races to follow at 8:30 p.m., FS1 will have a television cover.
Last chance qualifier
The five main pilots of each heat will switch to the main event and will start the race in n ° 1-20 positions. This leaves three places open in the main event.
Sunday afternoon, two of the three places will be determined via a last chance qualification race. This 75 rpm race will feathand the 19 drivers who did not run in the field during heat races on Saturday. The two best finish in this race will obtain departure places n ° 21 and 22 for the main event on Sunday evening.
The 23rd and last starting point will be given to the most finished pilot in the ranking of last year’s points which did not race via heat races or the last chance qualifier. Logano, the title champion of the Cup series, is locked up on the field for the confrontation, whatever happens because of his position of points. If Logano obtains one of the automatic spots, Blaney has been guaranteed in the field since he finished second in 2024.
