NASCAR’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was postponed twice due to snow, but it still couldn’t avoid it.
The season-opening exhibition event made it to the halfway point on Wednesday night under dry conditions, with Ty Gibbs leading at lap 100, but then Mother Nature decided to visit the Winston-Salem track.
A wintry mix of snow and sleet arrived during the halftime break, forcing the cars to come back out on wet weather tires.
After several parade laps and passes by the track drying machines, the race got underway again, but was a mess until the end.
Cars were slipping and sliding and bumping and, despite NASCAR being patient before waving the yellow flags, they started to fly, even as the precipitation moved out of the area.
There were 13 in the final 100 laps and laps under yellow didn’t count, which led to another issue. Kyle Larson pulled over on lap 152 out of fuel and Chase Elliott followed him 12 laps later. There were nearly as many yellow flag laps run as green flag laps, which no one expected.
NASCAR decided to bring everyone in with 35 laps for fuel to get them to the end of the race, which was being led by Ryan Preece when it restarted. The RFK Racing driver would survive another yellow and a 20-lap green run to the finish to claim his first-ever win in a Cup Series car with a big lead over William Byron in second place.
Full results:
- Ryan Preece
- William Byron
- Ryan Blaney
- Daniel Suarez
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Briscoe
- Austin Dillon
- Chris Buescher
- Ross Chastain
- Alex Bowman
- Joey Logano
- Josh Berry
- Christopher Bell
- Ty Gibbs
- Carson Hocevar
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
- Connor Zilisch
- Kyle Busch
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Austin Cindric
- Tyler Reddick
- Bubba Wallace
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