The confrontation once consisted in obtaining a coveted coat.
This may seem difficult to design now for an event that has crisscrossed the country twice in the past three years while extending in pre-season extravagance, bringing Nascar to fresh, unexploited and sometimes underestimated markets.
But during the 33 -year race for the exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, multicolored jackets were a major advantage that meant that your car had done the club invited only for the winners of the series.
“There was a few times in these races which was the highest point,” said the co -owner of Wood Brothers Racing, Len Wood, with a little laugh. “They gave them to all members of the team. It would have been the highest point of the week. »»
In relation: Times, channels for the weekend of the confrontation
Before its 47th race, the accessory advantages and the overwhelming buzz have exceeded the exclusive fashion declarations of the shock, which will be held outside Daytona for the fourth consecutive year this weekend as an annual pre-season festival with A global atmosphere.
The Bowman Gray Stadium, a Nascar pillar for seven decades in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will take the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stick, an emblematic arena known for the Olympic Games and Football that highlighted the races of Cars in stock on a temporary asphalt oval in the middle of the concrete jungle.
The last seasons have aroused omnipresent chatter on the merits of the final of the Cup championship, but the shock offers a model in real time of the way this vision could resonate both by attracting new fans and appearing the old guard.
“I think it’s great that the location changes, and I think it should change every year,” said Alex Bowman. “Obviously, we have the ability to do so. We are now going to tiny racing tracks now. So, continuing to evolve it and doing different things is somehow what Nascar has become. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us.
Although it is probably the shock (which sold two months earlier) will have a commitment with the Stade Bowman Gray beyond 2025, the triple champion of the Cup series, Joey Logano, said that the event should go to new destinations.
“It always writes a little more excitement, and people talk more about it when it is something new,” said Logano, who won the inaugural confrontation at the Colosseum. “When we went to Los Angeles the first time, remember all the speeches on what this race was going to be and no one had the slightest idea?”
“He realizes a lot of media, which is good, and you also bring him back to the racing fan. When you look at what Winston-Salem is to our sport, and this whole region, there are a ton of nascar fans, but it is as cool as we gave racing fans who might not have been able to Go to other races and opportunity to see a race. Whether in Winston-Salem or Los Angeles or to name a city, I think that moving it is cool because it gives people the opportunity. »»
Citing new cutting races in Mexico City, the outskirts of Nashville and downtown Chicago as other examples of bringing Nascar’s product to the people, Christopher Bell considers the recent history of the Clash as a plan for the future.
“I love this concept and I like the diversification of the Nascar calendar,” said Bell. “I would like to arrive at a nascar point where we go to each site once a year. And I think it helps to create excitement and help to make each race feel like an event. … I would love to see more new songs on the calendar every year. I think it’s super important.
Evolving from the daytona oval
From 1979 to 2021, the shock was an element (although under various monkers led by sponsors) at Daytona International Speedway. It is a bit dizzying to think about how the desire to take the show on the road was practically accepted overnight as a stroke of planning genius.
The atmosphere shift began with the stages of the baby to move the daytona oval event to the road route in the track in 2021. Then Bond Quantum spent millions to build a short temporary track at the ‘Interior of the Colosseum, which attracted a crowd of 50,000 people of 50,000 people with at least 70% of ticket buyers for the first time (by NASCAR data).
SHOCK: Past Clash Winners | Memorable moments of conflict
“I thought what we have done in Los Angeles, especially the first year with the number of new fans, was one of the biggest victories that our sport has ever seen which I have been part,” said Logano. “Go to a whole new market and a race in the city center. I thought it was huge.
Now, he is back in the future of Bowman Gray, a quarter of Mile Rugueux which has organized more than 1,000 races sanctioned by the NASCAR since 1949, but is mainly famous for its weekly series modified since its last Cup race took place in 1971.
From the second largest metropolitan region in the country to the fifth largest city in North Carolina, there is a common thread.
Once the private winners of the pole company meet for a match race in Daytona (its inaugural field had nine cars flowing for 20 laps), the shock was repositioned in Los Angeles as a carnival with concerts “to Half-time ”and heat races.
The same atmosphere will be celebrated in Winston-Salem, where the shock will be held over two days with several hours of practice, qualifications and sandwich races in festivals of fans. With a nod to the track known as “The Madhouse” for the Naked Pointe race, there will also be a modified race on Saturday.
For the co -owners of Wood Brothers Racing, who celebrates his 75th anniversary this year, to help the shock of the Pure Focus of Daytona on the race was the right call to transform it into a traveling show.
“At the start of Daytona, you were talking about finishing in 16 or 17 minutes,” said Len Wood. “It was a short show. What they did (in Los Angeles) with heat races and concerts like Ice Cube, they made it a whole day, and I think it spent much better than a 17 -minute show. “”
While Eddie Wood remembers that it was “a great honor” to make the confrontation in Daytona, he is dizzy when he explains what the event will mean for the Stade Bowman Gray, a racing home where he has Assisted by races because he was almost the center of Nascar “in the 1960s.
“The way they do it now, instead of a race is an event for me,” said Wood. “You have so many things that happen, and I just think it’s good for Winston-Salem. I went there in the middle of the summer and for the opening evening for the weekly series, and it’s crowded. I saw 18,000 to 20,000 people there there. I am interested in seeing the rear wall above the gallery. I saw this with people of depth, so I’m interested to see how it shakes. I like what they are doing.
Bowman Gray: A story of the rich history of the track
Having run the changes four times at the Bowman Gray Stadium, Ryan Preece thinks that Winston-Salem was rewarded with a major league exhibition after his long absence from the Cup.
“It’s a city behind the race (and) Bowman Gray Stadium,” he said. “For anyone who has never been on this race track on his typical weekly show, the place is blocked. It is a community that loves the race and supports the race track. »»
The future of confrontation
What community could get the next shock crack?
Cup drivers have a myriad of ideas but also have realistic expectations for an event that must naturally take place during the winter.
“It’s really difficult because there are different small pockets in the United States that are really passionate about the race,” said Preece. “The challenge is that it is February.”
Roush Fenway Keselowski driver suggested trying the shock of New Smyrna Speedway, just south of Daytona.
A place in the southwest would also make sense. Nascar once has a series of winter heat in Tucson, Arizona (which happens to be the hometown of Bowman).
“If we want to do it in the stadiums, there are obviously all kinds of places where we can go,” said Bowman. “If we are going to go on different racing slopes that the cup does not happen, I think there are a lot of large racing pieces across the country that can make a good show. It’s just difficult to be in February or January. But there are all kinds of places to go. There is probably not one that is just to choose. I have the impression that we can somehow put it anywhere, and they continued to show it. “”
Logano leans towards another large metropolitan region.
“I would love to see our sport continue to do things like that because it’s just big,” he said. “The Colosseum felt like a big event. I am not saying that Bowman Gray does not feel big, but we have the impression that we are going to our base, which is so cool in his own way but different. So, personally, I would like to see us running in cities.
“This is where our sport has a little more challenge because it is difficult to put a race track of 1 mile or 2 miles in a city. So, if we have the opportunity to be like a baseball, basketball, hockey and NFL team, where their stadiums are where people are and where people can go there, you Get a whole new demography. »»
For at least a year, however, it is expected that these clash fans will flock the Bowman Gray Stadium.
MORE: Where to find a confrontation in 2025 on television
“I just think people will be really excited for that,” said Chase Elliott. “I think it will last more than a year. Hopefully it just carries the energy a little more before having to change it again. »»
Said Preece: “The energy they will see from this community, even if it will probably be 42 degrees or something else, it will be great.”
And maybe just the right temperature for a layer of vintage conflict.
Nate Ryan has written on Nascar since 1996 when he worked at San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA Today and in the past 10 years at NBC Digital Sports. He is the host of the Podcast Nascar on NBC and also covered various other car sports, including the Indycar and IMSA series.
