NASCAR will be racing against the clock on Wednesday night at the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem.
The forecast for the postponed event is calling for a wintry mix of rain and snow to hit the area around 8 p.m.. The 200-lap race is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and should be take fewer than two hours to complete, but there’s no guarantee when the weather will arrive.
Temperatures are expected to stay just above freezing all evening, however, and the race may not get cut short for precipitation.
“We’ll continue to discuss with our competition team, but this is an event and venue that is within our wet weather tire policy so we’ll be ready to race no matter what Mother Nature throws at us,” Justin Swilling, NASCAR’s project manager for the Clash, said during a press conference on Tuesday. “Based on the initial forecasts, it’s very light to mild conditions. And we can race in those tomorrow.”
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NASCAR introduced wet weather tires for short oval tracks in 2023 and the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium oval is the shortest. It doesn’t allow racing in heavy precipitation, only damp conditions, and this would mark the first time they would be used in winter temps with possible snow or sleet.
Bowman Gray crews have cleared the facility of the near foot of snow that slammed the city over the weekend, with help on Tuesday from NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland.
Practice and qualifying heats are scheduled for 1:30 p.m ET and are not expected to be impacted by weather They will be broadcast on the Fox Sports app. The 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier is set for 4:30 p.m. with the Clash main event following at 6 p.m. ET, both on the Fox broadcast network.
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