Written by Gabriel Tsui
Welcome to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and we kick off the preseason with a return to one of NASCAR’s very first tracks, the Bowman Gray Stadium. After two seasons at the LA coliseum, NASCAR decided to bring the clash back to North Carolina for 2025. What can we expect out of this race and who can kick off this season with a win at this historic stadium?
Track Preview
The Bowman Gray stadium is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is one of the oldest circuits. Nicknamed “The Madhouse”, Bowman Gray was once the home of the college football powerhouse, Wake Forest University, and is currently the home of the Winston-Salem State Rams.
It hosted NASCAR races from 1958 to 1971, also hosting the first ever NASCAR sanctioned event all the way back in 1949. Built in 1937, this race track has a distance 0.25 miles (0.402 kilometres), with a banking of zero degrees, meaning teams will be running an incredibly high downforce setup. The drivers will go around the quarter-mile track for 200 laps, totalling a distance of 50.6 miles of racing around the historic race track.
The weather report indicates the skies will be clear of precipitation, but the chilly conditions will prevail, with temperatures around eight degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the race. The race will commence on the Sunday of February 2nd, at 20:00 eastern time (17:00 PT, 02:00 CET).
Race Predictions
With a brand new race track and a new year, it is unclear who will be able to come out on top, especially in a quarter-mile race track. However, there are a few names who will be looking to kick off their new season in triumphant fashion, and the first will be the star free agent of the silly season: Chase Briscoe.
After four seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing, the team went out of business and Briscoe was recruited by Joe Gibbs Racing to replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. in the No.19. Briscoe hasn’t necessarily been a strong starter when looking at his previous records, but if he’s able to pull off a strong start, he could build on that start into momentum.
This is a great time to push the car to the greatest limit and see what you can extract from it, as the preseason race doesn’t carry weight, and Michael McDowell will be buzzing at this opportunity. In the final main stretch of his career, McDowell moved across town to join Spire Motorsport in their No. 71 car, in an attempt to make a push for the playoffs.
He is an above-average short track racer who can bring 120% worth of performance out of the car when he is in his element. The expectation is for McDowell to be running in the front with the big names in his debut, possibly contending for the win if the moment presents itself.
Three storylines to look out for
First impressions last
There will be up to 12 drivers making their debut for their new team or their first Cup Series appearance in quite a while, and as mentioned above, first impressions last. Not just to the fans or the pundits, but a good first outing will give the drivers the necessary momentum to carry into the regular season. It will be interesting to see what all of these drivers will achieve on their debut.
A nod the series’ history
After a long time, the prodigal son returns. From a fringe sport, to an audience at the national scale every Sunday evening on par with other sporting events, NASCAR has come a long way. The return to Bowman Gray shows how far the series has come to become a nationally, at times globally known, sporting spectacle.
200 miles of madness at the Madhouse
The Madhouse is a relatively special track when compared to other tracks on the calendar, one of the shortest tracks with zero degrees of banking. It is a far cry from the regularly scheduled tracks, but it will be intriguing as to how the teams and drivers navigate the track and its limits.
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