See It: NASCAR Is Making Big Changes To Bowman Gray Stadium For The Clash
The Madhouse is getting a makeover.
NASCAR signed a lease to manage the racing operations at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium venue, which is owned by the city of Winston-Salem and features a quarter-mile oval around a football field, through 2050.
The first major NASCAR event scheduled for the track since it took over will be the 2025 season-opening Clash exhibition race, which will be held on the weekend of Feb. 2, and a changes are being made to get it ready to host the Cup Series cars.
A new low-glare Musco LED lighting system is being installed that is designed to be better for the drivers, fans and TV while using less energy than the current set-up.
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Even more important to the drivers, NASCAR is replacing the stadium’s iconic red and white striped steel Armco guardrails with an energy-absorbing SAFER barrier like all of the other Cup Series tracks use.
Catch fencing is also being added and the project is scheduled to be finished sometime in January. The track surface was just repaved in 2022, so it’s still pretty fresh and doesn’t need to be redone yet.
The changes could come in handy as Bowman Gray is famous for its rough and tumble racing, with plenty of contact between drivers on and off of the track, so the Clash could very much live up to its name.
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NASCAR made another significant update related to Bowman Gray stadium recently, but to its history books.
In October, it officially named Bobby Allison the winner of a controversial race that was held at the track in 1971. The Myers Brothers Memorial featured cars from both the top Grand National and second-tier Grand American classes and Allison won in a Grand American car, taking advantage of its better handling on the tight track.
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Other driver’s protested and NASCAR at the time decided not to name an official winner, but it has now recognized the win as Allison’s. That gave him 85 career victories to break a decades-old tie with Darrel Waltrip at 84 and move him into sole possession of fourth place on the all-time wins list.
Sadly, Allison was only able to enjoy the accolade for a short time as he died just two weeks later at age 86.
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