NASCAR Cup Series: Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Highlights 🏁 NASCAR on FOX

Welcome to historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the preseason tilt known as the Clash. And the Cookout Clash is underway. Yeah, and basically what happened, those two teammates, they decided, hey, we both want to be in this race. Kyle Larson, pole sitter, chose the top, and William Byron let him in. You see that left front tire on the 24, under these cold conditions, very easy to slide the left front tire under brake, and you want to do it as little as possible, because that tire pressure is going to make it a little bit more difficult. You want to do it as little as possible, because that tire will create a flat spot, and it will find it every time you start braking. One, two, three. Larson, Byron, Briscoe. Hamlin and Gibbs, teammates fighting it out for the fourth spot. Yeah, we talked so much last year about the speed in that 54 car. Joe Gibbs racing in general, but Ty Gibbs has had a lot of speed as he's gone through the end of the year. Bowman Gray, here's a good battle as Ryan Blaney gets past his Penske Ford teammate, Joey Logano. With Joey Logano in the lead. right behind Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch. Just like I was looking for in this 12 car. The car really rolls the center of the corner good. A lot of speed, Kevin. Yeah, and that's been Ryan Blaney's strong point through the years, is he's able to roll lower longer and get that mid-corner speed, and I think Logano knew as he got in the dirt right there, he's like, man, I am holding this 12 car up. He's not going to do that for anybody else in the field, move over like that. It's not going to be that easy for Austin Dillon to get by, but definitely some teammates working together right there. There's your biggest movers, led by Alex Bowman. Blaney is on that list. Hosts of our Barry, Cendric, and Preece have gained spots. Look at that thing roll the middle. That is amazing. Here the leaders are, and there's the back of the pack. Yeah. Now is when it gets interesting, and caution waves. Debris in turn number four has put us under the first caution of this race. And only green flag laps counting just before race leader Kyle Larson got to the tail end of the field. So the track crew will come out, pick up whatever brought us under caution, and then it will get interesting, because at Bowman gray, the choose rule makes things really exciting. You like the inside lane here, well, somebody's going to get brave and roll their way up and try that outside. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely want to be on the inside. We've seen you be able to protect yourself on the outside a little bit, but we'll see how it all shakes out. Anybody see any debris? All right. We're going to come to the choose and see how many take the inside before somebody gets brave and ventures to the outside. Well, it looks like the teammates are going to do the same thing. That could bite them sooner or later with these teammates behind them. Yeah, because what that does on the bottom lane is it stacks them up, and then those guys behind them start realizing that, so they'll start pushing you into the corner. Exactly. We've seen that before, haven't we? And I think right now, the top lane, you know, off of turn two, we've got some of those weepers running down the racetrack. So it's going to be interesting to see if the back of the car on those guys in the top lane steps out when they're trying to get in the throttle. So definitely some water running across the racetrack right there that the top lane's going to have to deal with. Green flag. Didn't get down. Those Toyotas get organized. Get single file. Well, right there. Ty Gibbs needs to get in. There he goes. Right into that hole. They've got themselves aligned right there. Christopher Bell stuck up on the top. As they fill those holes, watch this accordion effect and what it does in that bottom lane. What the drivers will do right there, you saw Christopher Bell kind of shade down right there to keep the 17 of Chris Buescher from trying to think that he was going to come down the racetrack and check him up just a little bit. So didn't work out for him and he's going to lose another spot to the 17. Again, a prime example of how that can stack them up and work against you if you're not careful. Lost a spot there with the 20. All right. Look back from the Bob's Discount Furniture Cam on board Denny Hamlin at Chris Buescher in sixth place. Here comes Briscoe to the inside and he wants to break up that pair of Chevys at the front of the field and he moved that 24 car out of the way, got himself a right front fender underneath the 24 and was able to make that pass. So we didn't see chase Briscoe have a lot of strength, what it looked like before, but we don't know how much tire these guys are trying to save. Right here he's showing that he's got the speed to fire back off. It's a good point. If you're Briscoe, get in front of him and then start backing it back. Pass for second place. You see just a little bit lower right there. You got to get as low onto that left rear bumper to get him up the racetrack just a little bit to try to make the back of that car wiggle, and he did a great job of putting William Byron in a bad spot right there that he couldn't really recover from it. And William, the door was cracked. It wasn't open, but he went ahead and blew it open and got the position. Well, at some point you got to start being aggressive, and if you're going to win this race, you've got to position yourself when you have the opportunities. You can't wait. You have to take those opportunities when you have the chance. Bubba Wallace getting knocked around. He was right out there with his teammate, and around he goes. That's the accordion effect. He got wrecked from about two cars, three cars back, didn't he, mate? Kyle Reddick got kicked up the racetrack, couldn't get back down, and here they all come. Oh, boy. Ross Chastain into Blaney into Bubba. And really, in that position right there, you'll see what happens. Blaney is just going to check up a little bit early, and the guys behind him have not thought anything about checking up early. So it just... You see Larson spin the tires right there at the end of the front straightaway. Briscoe sends it in, but cannot draw even with the five. They almost run out of width of the racetrack. Three wide back here, look out. Still no clear leader, although they're lined up single file behind, ready to pounce, but neither Larson nor Briscoe will give. And that's what Briscoe wants right there. He wants to make him shallow up his entry and not be able to finish the exit so that he can get the drive up off the corner. That's right. If you're Briscoe, okay, flip side of that. What's the five do? You need to move him up in the middle of the corner, take this line away from him. Better do it quick. The positioning has to be correct so that you can slide him up the racetrack with your front tire in front of his front tire. Right now Kyle Larson can't get position on chase Briscoe to do that, but that was a good exit right there. You're going to see him higher. This five car moving higher in the corner and center of the corner there, he's moved up just a little bit. And you see Briscoe right there. That's exactly what you want to do. You want to try to hit that right front tire fender right there just to keep that car from turning up the racetrack so that you have to do exactly what happened right there. Keeps him from putting the power down. See him pinching him down. Gets him loose, too, and the rear tires will spin when he takes that front end away from him. He's taking the exit away, but it spins the tires and you have the spot, but it didn't work this time. That was a lucky down. Thank you. When or if he'll make a move, turn two, side by side, they have banged and beat bumpers Ryan Preece and the number one of Ross Chastain. They've traded that position three times and a lot of paint in the process. What's at stake here? Well, very little. Slow the pace down a little bit so that you don't leave the bottom of the racetrack. You try to check those guys up a little bit more so that you hit your marks and not let those guys get position. You can let him beat the back bumper off of that car, but just don't give him a given the position of the inside and contact as we see from the Valvoline on board camera of William Byron. He and his Hendrick Chevy teammate Kyle Larson got together and Byron wants to leave. It was tight, but he was there. I don't know if his spotter told him clear or inside, but his teammate was there and took the spot. This is really hard when you're in Ty Gibbs position, trying to keep that gap filled so that Kyle Larson can't get down the racetrack. This is the fall off. We talked about more horsepower, softer tires going to have more fall off, more breaking, getting in the corners, gets the front tires hot, makes him tighter and one of those cars that is not fading. Like you say, that came out of nowhere really quickly is the 12 of Ryan Blaney. You said he was going to be third or fourth by the time that the break is spinner. Turn four. It's Austin Cedric and caution waves. There's the two of Cedric 97 of SVG just got into the back of him and turn him around. Well, you see the leaders coming. Urgency was in the rearview mirror. You see the two car up the racetrack in the 97 was rolling the bottom of the racetrack into second right there in front of his teammate, but they're side-by-side with Hossevar and Larson right behind him. Blaney wasn't able to get down there with Hossevar and fill that hole. Here comes Denny Hamlin. His inside. On a quarter mile like this, every restart is an opportunity. And Hossevar almost cleared Larson. Now he does. Off turn two. And that's the unique part about this racetrack. Those walls jet out like that because that's the edge of the grandstands. You've got your brake bias in the car that you can control as well. So it looks to me like the rear tires on these Gibbs cars up front right now are better. You've got Carson Hossevar putting a whole lot of yellow wrap to get the lead. You see him give his teammate a big shot right there, get him up the racetrack. It takes a big shot with these cars. You can't just give them a little love tap. It just helps them. They'll flip you the peace sign and keep going. You have to give them a shot and shove them up the racetrack, almost take the front tires out from underneath of them. As we watch this battle, Ryan Blaney has moved up to fourth place. Halfway sign this time. Ty Gibbs takes the crossed flags and will stay green until the field cycles through here. Well, the good news for William Byron is he protected himself enough to keep himself in that third position. Didn't slide near as bad as his teammate Kyle Larson. And the caution waves for halfway. Here we go. 54 sliding up. And around the outside comes Briscoe. All the way up on the outside of the track. He went to the outside, Kevin, exactly what you were talking about. Hamlin slides into the 5 and around he goes. Denny Hamlin ran out of grip, slid into Kyle Larson. Here's a look at it. What put us under caution here. Denny Hamlin gets loose, spins around, goes to the 5 and then it's on. Denny Hamlin got help from Connor behind him. Connor Zilich in that 88 car. But if you look right here, look at SVG already going way to the outside. Just like you were talking about, Kevin. Immediately went straight to that outside. Josh Berry got into the wall and he is looking to exit. He has stopped. And we're under caution. I think he's got right front damage. Oh, he hit the wall. Yeah, but he hit it a lot harder right here. Yeah, he hit the wall in the front straightaway. And as we talked about in practice today, you hit the wall and it shoots you back off down the end of the groove and makes the car loose. So that's turn three. Hard hit there. Zilich, the blue car on the inside. He is making some ground in that bottom groove. Up challenging now for fifth side-by-side with chase Elliott. Going to give up that spot. It's turn four. They're all piled up. Blaney is there. Wallace. Typically that concrete is going to have more grip than anything else on the racetrack. I see a left front flat right there on Austin Sendrick's car. Bowman got loose and got into the side of him and cut that left front tire down. Austin Sendrick and Bubba Wallace have gone to the pits. And that's exactly what he did. Oh, Gibbs is around. Nope, we got straightened up. We're not done yet. We're going to stay green. Still green. How about that? No caution. Boy, a lot of bumper tag. They're still three wide into the corner. And everybody's going to make it out. Gibbs and chase Elliott. You see the wheels go to the right like he got loose getting into the corner. We've talked about that middle groove and how hard it is to make that pass. When was the last time you saw somebody get all that sideways and around and end up coming out of the corner in second place? That's how you're going to have to make these passes. Here comes Gibbs back to the inside. For fifth place, Ryan Preece has passed them. And now they're stacked up at the trouble spot, turns three and four. And they wrecked right in front of him. So you're going to see them start checking up. At the time of caution, Hosovar was the leader. And he stopped to avoid contact and damage. Okay, Kevin, if you're Hosovar, much like we saw on that last restart with Briscoe, you're going to take the outside, you're going to take the inside on this. I promise you that aggression from Briscoe is because of how he got past before us. We've got one around. Yeah, that's Austin Dillon in turn two as they come to the caution flag. 139 from Bob's camera on board Denny Hamlin. Oh, that's how it looked. To the front row. Look at this. That's VG. That's experience. Never slipped a tire. Hosovar did to the point. Here he comes. There he goes. And caution waves. I want to go back to what you said there, Kevin, with Ryan Preece. And I agree with you. Aggression is happening. It looks like that was off the front bumper of the 22. Doesn't take much in these conditions to get somebody out of the shape. Yep. There it is. There he is. Yep. No surprise. How about here? I think you're going to see. Oh, Logano is tied up there with Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott. And we're under caution with the new leader, Ryan Preece. Yeah, I can't stress enough. That's the hazard about leaning on people. Oh, Logano was sideways going in. Not sure if it was from contact, but there's plenty of it there to go around. Can Gibbs come with him here? Everybody makes it out of 3 and 4 this time. Zillich to the inside. He gets into Gibbs. Around goes Ty Gibbs. And Hosovar right front. A lot of right front damage on the 77. Barely running. We stay green with 50 to go. Caution for Kyle Larson whose car was slowing. So Preece into second. Briscoe third. Byron fourth. Suarez fifth. And for the lead, here comes Preece on the inside trying to use up Ben Gisbergen. Wow. Yeah, I think that 60 car is better than we think it is. Stack that line up big time, Kev. Hey, here comes Blaney. He's back in the shot. Oh, no. Ben Gisbergen around. Oh, heavy damage to Bubba Wallace. Let's have a look here. Back stretch. Briscoe just didn't turn. I think he had some help from behind, too, but it started even on the back stretch. No, he didn't. Again, kind of making up for that poor launch on the restart. No, he didn't have any help from the back. And both the trackers spinning. Ben Gisbergen and Zillich. The lead lap here. Well, Preece has picked up the pace. The last two laps he was. Oh, turn three. Post Savar. Remember what I said about paybacks? A little rub and bump there. Bubba didn't like it. Retaliated. Finished it. In the middle of the straightaway. Blaney gets past Byron who wiggles coming out of four. Guard in the wall at the exit of turn four where that wall juts out. And it was Kyle Busch. And there was a lot of contact. Oh, four wide. Yeah. Never works here. Well, I think the 54 car saw that 8 car in trouble. Took out a big mortgage on his house to do it. Here he is today leading the first race of 2026 here at Bowman Gray. Please stay green is what they're saying. Three to go. Bring it home. Brad keselowski hired him. What did you like about Ryan Preece? He's aggressive. He wants to win races. And we can afford him. Well, here we go. That's about to pay off. Three laps. Ryan loves to work on his own stuff. He's one of those guys that is very hands on. And this is what he loves to do. He loves to race. Been around it. Working on the cars. In the cars. And here's the white flag. One lap to go. Sponsored by credit one bank. Half a straightaway lead on William Byron who has five car lengths on Denny Hamlin. Off turn four. At the madhouse. The quick out clash goes to Ryan Preece for Roush Fenway, keselowski and Ford. How about that? He joins Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as winners of the clash before winning a NASCAR cup series point race. He did a great job. He had speed in his race car when the time counted at the end of that thing. But I want to go back to the aggression that he took off there. Slow her down, buddy. But the aggression that he showed on those restarts when we went back to it under the wet weather was very, very aggressive. And it paid off for him. Put him in the front when the time was right and he drove off into the sunset because of it. His grandfather, Bob Judkins, well known modified car builder and owner in New England started the Pinto revolution in NASCAR. His dad, Jeff, raced late models at Stafford Speedway and elsewhere. I think Ryan Preece was born with maybe a steering wheel in his mouth at a very, very young age. Great job.