Snow Forces Cook Out Clash to Wednesday at Bowman Gray

A winter storm that dumped up to a foot of snow in North Carolina’s Piedmont has once again forced postponement of NASCAR’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This time to Wednesday, February 4.

Originally scheduled for Sunday, February 1, it was first postponed to Monday, February 2. On Sunday, NASCAR announced it was moving The Clash to Wednesday.

NASCAR executive Justin Swilling, who’s spearheading operations for The Clash, said the postponement decision was made after seeking perspective and guidance from officials with the City of Winston-Salem and the state of North Carolina.

“This decision is made, again, in an abundance of caution for the fans and the competitors that are traveling to the venue,” Swilling said. “It’s mission critical that we get everyone here safely.

“(It) also gives ourselves some additional time early in the week to ensure that all of the wintry mix between snow and ice and sleet and everything in between was cleared off all areas of the property.”

On Wednesday, NASCAR Cup Seres practice and qualifying are scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. and will be on the Fox Sports App. The Last Chance Qualifier is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and will be followed by the Cook Out Clash at 6 p.m. Both of those events will be televised live on Fox. All times are Eastern.

Parking lots will open Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. with off-site shuttle services beginning at noon. The gates will open at 12:30 p.m.

Swilling advised fans attending the event to dress in layers and be bundled for cold weather. There will be a few patio warmers but no large warming stations.

Even though temperatures remained below freezing for most of Sunday, Swilling said the sun helped. Crews focused on the racing surface Sunday, and it was “almost completely dry” by late afternoon.

“The football field is probably 70% to 80% there and with a few more passes of some different pieces of equipment, we’ll be in a good place,” Swilling said. “It looks like we preserved the football field paint and all the sponsorship placements there. (Next) we’ll focus on the NASCAR Cup Series garage area, which efforts are underway there to get the snow and ice that’s remaining melted off of that surface.

“The stadium grounds themselves and where it comes to hosting fans, that’s really the city of Winston-Salem’s responsibility, but we also bear in that responsibility as well given it’s a NASCAR hosted event. So, things like the steps of the stadium, the benches of the stadium, where fans will sit, the fan concourse, the fairgrounds staff have really taken the lead on that. This morning, they immediately started to go to work on the concourse and have slowly started to move their way from kind of the turn four side of the racing surface all the way over to the turn three side in the stadium. Now, we’re just trying to find where we can put that snow until it melts away.”

Swilling said “huge construction dump trucks” hauled 40 loads of snow and ice away from the stadium on Saturday.