Despite rescheduling, fans flock to Bowman Gray Stadium for Cook Out Clash

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Thousands of fans showed up to Bowman Gray Stadium Wednesday for the Cook Out Clash. The NASCAR exhibition race was pushed back multiple times due to snow, but that didn’t stop fans from attending the event.

Ryan Preece battled sleet and near-freezing temperatures to win the race.

“Short track racing to me is just more exciting,” said Kerry Zapata, a racing fan from Minnesota. “Where else can you stand up, yell and scream and just get your frustration out. You don’t need anything to make it exciting, just get you some racing. Oh, it’s just exciting.”

NASCAR officials tell us fans traveled from 41 states, eight countries, four continents and three Canadian provinces. They say a lot of the ticket buyers came from the Triad.

“If they had it Sunday, we would’ve been here Sunday,” said Ronnie Banks, a racing fan from Dobson. “Last year there was some good racing, two and three wide racing, which you don’t normally see that here with the modifieds. Just some good entertainment.”

Fans said they couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to see Cup Series cars at the place known as “The Madhouse.”

“This is kind of the thing you don’t get to see every day,” said Seth Renigar, a fan from Winston-Salem. “You know, you don’t get to see experience every day, and so I had to be here for this.”

It’s not clear yet if or when the Clash will return to Bowman Gray, but fans are hoping NASCAR will consider more short track races in the future.

“I think now they’re seeing that spectators are liking to come to these smaller tracks,” Renigar said. “I think they should branch out to the smaller tracks, back to the basics, basically.”