As a 23-year-old, I often get told I have an old soul. I listen to Elvis, watch Sanford and Son reruns, and often go to bed around 9:30 every night. I also love watch replays of NASCAR races that were ran before I was born, as I have already watched most of the races from after I was born.
Now, I get to see NASCAR return to place where they have not raced since before my own father was born.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time since 1971. The late Bobby Allison was the last winner at the “Madhouse” back on August 6th, 1971.
Every NASCAR fan began to scratch their heads a little bit last March when the sanctioning body announced they were going to begin managing racing operations at Bowman Gray Stadium last March.
We all figured that something was up with The Clash too. In 2024, NASCAR was at the LA Coliseum for the third straight year. The previous two years, NASCAR announced that they would return to Los Angeles the next year the event. However, in 2024 when The Clash came and went, there was no announcement on where it would be run in 2025.
When NASCAR began managing the racing operations at Bowman Gray, I thought that the sport was just trying to make another appeal at the grassroots racing fans. I grew up, like many here in the Upstate, going to all the local short tracks in the area. I have had family who raced in the area and known many others who race on Friday nights. That is where our love for stock car racing was developed, and it all carried over to Sunday afternoons watching the superstars. Over the past few years, the stars on Sunday afternoons have been racing at places that are very much so polar opposites of local short tracks.
There were rumbling that The Clash may be moved to Bowman Gray, but I did not think that was possible. How could they pull this off? They needed to do so much to the facility that did not seem feasible in less than a year’s time. This is a place that is a landmark for many racing fans, but there was no way one of NASCAR’s major touring series could run there.
Well, I was wrong, and I am glad. NASCAR announced back in August that the Cup Series would return to the place where a lot of NASCAR’s legends cut their teeth. Pearson, Petty, Allison, and many more all won races in Winston-Salem, NC in the infancy of the sport.
NASCAR also is not trying to change how the stadium currently looks. They have made the necessary safety adjustments that is needed for the Cup Series to race there, but they are doing a great job of keeping this event and venue about grass roots racing. The only major changes that have been made to the facility have been new lights and SAFER barriers.
Now, for racing fans like me and even the generation before us, we get to see the modern-day stars run at a place that we heard our grandfathers talk about. I get to watch Logano and Larson battle in the same corner that Pearson and Petty did. I get to see stock car racing return back to its roots.
This is very important for NASCAR as they continue to rebuild their identity. It has not been pretty over the past 20 years. They abandoned many of the places and ideas that helped the sport gain the fans and attention it had in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Fans turned off their TVs when NASCAR left Rockingham. Fans changed the channel when the sport introduced a playoff format. Motorsports enthusiasts turned their attention towards Formula 1 when NASCAR took the horsepower out of the cars.
Now, those fans are slowly started to come back. Not all of them at once, but little by little. NASCAR introducing a new car in 2022. Then, they returned to North Wilkesboro in 2023. Last year, we watched the most competitive racing the sport has had in nearly two decades. Now, in 2025 NASCAR returns to Bowman Gray Stadium and Rockingham. The sport is continuing to bring fans back and ratings are reflecting that.
There still are some things NASCAR needs to improve upon, such as the playoffs, charter system, and short track package. However, the sport is slowly healing. NASCAR is returning back to form, and Sunday at Bowman Gray Stadium will be another massive step in the right direction.
