Joey Logano considers whether Clash should return to Bowman Gray in 2025 or move elsewhere

Joey Logano and the rest of the best in the NASCAR Cup Series delivered an entertaining race on Sunday evening, as Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina hosted the 2025 iteration of The Clash.

The famed venue took over from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, as NASCAR looked to go back to its roots this time around. From a spectator standpoint, The Clash seemed to be a resounding success, and it has some wondering whether the Cup Series should return to Bowman Gray in 2026, or continue finding new venues for their exhibition.

With that in mind, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion spoke with FOX’s Bob Pockrass about his experience, and whether The Clash should head back to Winston-Salem next season.

“I mean, from what I hear, they pack this place out every weekend, without the star power of Cup guys. People who come here are just race fans. Like, they just like racing,” Logano stated, regarding the crowd at Bowman Gray. “Remember, it’s not a huge stadium, right? So you pack it out, and it looks good, and the energy is real. It’s not like you have this ginormous stadium and you get, you know, half or three quarters of it full, right? This is like, standing room only is kind of a — it’s a special feel. It’s hard to get the ticket, which, you know, people want what they can’t have, right? A lot of people probably watched this on TV, and you weren’t able to get the ticket here, because there’s a limited quantity.

“You know, maybe next year they get the opportunity to get tickets, right? Maybe they’ll say, ‘Man, I need to get on it, and as soon as they start selling them, I need to be on it and get them.’ I mean, there’s a little bit to be said about that, as well. But in the same breath, I would say it’s very important for us to move things around. You know, we’ve seen the success of our sport moving to new racetracks, and I’m a big fan of going to new places and bringing the racetrack to the fans that don’t typically get to see us, because it’s so hard to, you know — for a lot of people to travel a long ways, to see our races. So, going to new places is is huge for our sport.

“We’ve done that, right? Over the last five, six years, we’ve added new racetracks quite often. So I think that’s successful, you know, doing the same thing, eventually gets stale. But I don’t think that’s going to happen here anytime soon.”

All told, Joey Logano makes some salient points, both for and against returning to Bowman Gray in 2026. At the least, another year of The Clash in Winston-Salem would make sense, but it’s up to NASCAR’s decision-makers to weigh the pros and cons and make the determination.

Time will tell what the result is, but 2025 was certainly a success for this iteration of The Clash. Now, the NASCAR Cup Series will have next week off, before competing in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 16 to kick off the 2025 crusade.