By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
The NASCAR season has begun. While Daytona is in two weeks, drivers at Bowman Gray are treating the race as a firm test on what they will face during the 2025 season. Bowman Gray figures to get a points CUP race down the road as the circuit slowly and perhaps quickly moves back to its roots.
Pole Winner- Chase Elliott
It’s About Track Position- Chase Elliott
Q-There’s going to be more cars on-track during the feature tomorrow night. Did we see just how important track position is going to be right off the bat in that heat race?
“Absolutely. I mean it’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row. I think the first couple of rows certainly have a massive advantage on the rest of the field. Obviously anything can happen. You all have been watching long enough to know that anything can happen and I’m well aware of that. But I think just in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever – yeah, I certainly would want to be on the first couple of rows and, fortunately, we are. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Chris Buescher on the Bowman Gray Experience
“I don’t think I ever can remember being heckled on a track walk in a really long time (laughing). I didn’t get it too bad. Most of it was good. I got heckled and found out that was just a friend up there, so he was just messing with me, but to have that many people here for the modified race and to stick around for all of our practice and heat races hours later is pretty awesome. We all know the energy and how well this stadium does at putting people up into the bleachers and I think they had a crazy day today with modifieds and obviously we’ve got some races to go to finish out the night, but I’m really excited about tomorrow.”
Kyle Larson Compares the LA Colesium vs. Bowman Gray
What would you like to see with the Clash moving forward? Would you like to see it rotating on more short-tracks? Do you want to see it go international? Where would you like to see it go?
“I think all of that. I think all of that would be cool. I think going to L.A. was great. I think that was huge for our sport. It was fun for all of us involved. I think coming to Bowman Gray is amazing, as well. You know, resurrecting.. I mean you’re not resurrecting this place, but you’re still tapping into your roots a lot coming to this event here. Yeah, I think spending two or three years at a place is great. But I do think the L.A. thing was great because it proved that they could take that model to different venues, so I would like to see us tap into that a lot. But also, going to Rockingham or something like that would be cool. You know, I think seeing the Cup Series back there, whether it be a points-paying race, the Clash or something, I think that would be neat.”
Denny Hamlin on the Future of the Clash
Where would you like to see the Clash go in the future?
“I’m personally in the boat that I liked it at Daytona. It was just a really good warm up for the 500. I thought it provided tons of storylines for the 500, but it is a little bit different now-a-days. The racing on superspeedways is different. You used to, back then, if you saw someone that was really dominate in the Clash, it was like they have a great handling car – they are going to be tough to beat – doesn’t matter where they start. Now that it is such a track position race, I don’t know that you will get the direct correlation, but it could certainly bring back some hype to the 500. I’m probably in that boat or really anywhere that helps grow and get some excitement going for the season. I don’t really have a bucket list place where I would want to put it.”
Roy Akers covers NASCAR for www.skyviewsports.net
