Following another mediocre season in 2024, Chase Elliott and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, are preparing to set things right this year. The first of their many challenges will be in the Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium. Many questions remain about the nature of this short track in Winston-Salem, but the chief has some clear expectations.
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He believes Bowman Gray will demand a setup different from what teams put together at the L.A. Coliseum. This is because the two tracks differ in certain aspects, such as the surface type and curbing, despite their identical length and banking degree. That said, Gustafson understands that he will ultimately have to take a leap of faith.
“I think setups are going to be very similar just because we don’t have any other knowledge of Bowman Gray …The Coliseum was almost a little more peaked in the corners. The curbing and the paint and all of those little nuances, too, but for us, we’ve just kind of got to go off of our experiences at similar tracks,” he told the Hendrick Motorsports website.
In reality, every driver and crew chief will be blindfolded to a certain degree for the first several laps of the Clash. This is bound to make for an interesting atmosphere and serve the track’s reputation as the ‘Madhouse.’ Elliott, for one, has already expressed his excitement to get to Winston-Salem and try his hand at taming Bowman Gray.
Why Elliott prefers to have the Clash at Bowman Gray over L.A.
While the Bowman Gray is a little too short for Elliott’s taste, he still prefers it over the L.A. Coliseum for a selfless reason. He told the media last year, “If we’re going to have an event like that if we need to fulfill television partner obligations, I’d rather it be in Winston-Salem than Los Angeles just from a logistical standpoint.”
Elliott also added that he expected the racing and the entertainment value to be largely similar between the L.A. Coliseum and Bowman Gray. The differences in the shape of the tracks may add to the challenge. The Bowman Gray is a lot tighter in the corners than its counterpart and will be slightly more difficult to navigate.
The biggest difference will be in the track atmosphere. Bowman Gray can only accommodate 17,000 fans against the 77,500 capacity of the Coliseum. The race will go down on February 2 and kick off another year of exciting racing.
