FOX Sports' 2025 NASCAR Season Gets Underway With Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium The short-track venue's history with NASCAR dates to 1949 By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, January 31, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
While much of the FOX Sports team is already in New Orleans preparing for Super Bowl LIX, the broadcaster's NASCAR production team will be at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC, this weekend, firing up its 2025 season with Sunday's 2025 Cook Out Clash at the .25-mile oval track, which holds only 17,000 race fans.
When they announced that the race would be at Bowman Gray Oval, says George Grill, field technical producer, FOX Sports, we didn't know what kind of facilities we're going to have and how much NASCAR was going to have to put into it to get the facility ready. But they put some money into it and have done a lot of upgrades for things like lighting, which was a big concern for the broadcast.
Fox Sports and NASCAR kicks off the 2025 season with short-track racing at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina this weekend.
The three previous editions of The Clash had been held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A short-track race, it is always intense, and, although the crowd may be smaller this year, it is sold out, and its overall feel will be more intimate because the track won't be swimming inside a massive stadium. Game Creek Video Cleatus mobile unit is onsite to handle production duties, as it does for all FOX Sports NASCAR races.
In L.A., says Grill, we were out in the parking lot, and you had to cross a lot of things to get in there. Here, things like fiber aren't a big deal because the distances aren't that long. The one thing that is challenging is the TV booth, because it's more like a PA booth for high school football.
The Fox NASCAR compound is located right next to the stadium for this weekend's NASCAR race.
The track at Bowman Gray Stadium is unique in that it is an oval and the grandstands on one end extend onto the track a bit. That promises some more excitement with respect to the racing and, in turn, more fun for fans in the stands.
Making turns at the far side of the track, cars will encounter pinch points because the stands reach out onto the track.
NASCAR has a long history of races at the track. The first NASCAR race there was in 1949, and it is the longest-standing track to hold weekly NASCAR-sanctioned races (the last time a Cup race was there, however, was 1971, which is why this race is so highly anticipated in racing circles).
They've had car races here since 1949, which is right after NASCAR [was founded], adds Grill. A lot of the backbone of NASCAR was formed in North Carolina. So there is a lot of history here.
Another advantage of having The Clash in North Carolina is that a majority of the production crew for NASCAR races live there, making travel and logistics a bit more efficient. It's easier for a lot of the folks, notes Grill.
After The Clash, the team will turn its attention to the Daytona 500, which will be held the weekend of Feb. 15 (trucks are expected to arrive in Daytona next Wednesday).
Beyond that, Grill sees the biggest change with respect to a race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, TX: The track is being shortened for NASCAR, and the laps will be 90 seconds shorter, which will be great for the broadcast because, previously, it was 2 minutes and 30 seconds per lap. There will also be higher speeds because they won't have to go into a turn where they have to slow down to 35 mph.
More from Sports Video Group
09/01/2026
Rock-It Sports' Deron Brown & Laura Rowlands on Launching a New Brand, Suppl...
09/01/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's Chris Brown on the Broadcaster's First French O...
09/01/2026
NFL Playoffs 2026: CBS Sports Travels to Jacksonville With Packed Arsenal of Pro...
09/01/2026
NFL Playoffs 2026: NBC Sports Is Set To Roll Out New Scorebar, Insert Graphics T...
09/01/2026
NFL Playoffs 2026: Prime Video Production Team Caps Historic Season With Iconic ...
09/01/2026
NFL Playoffs 2026: FOX Sports Kicks Off Postseason Slate With Two-Game Wild Card...
09/01/2026
NFL Playoffs 2026: ESPN's Run Brings Monday Night Football' Flagship Op...
08/01/2026
At CFP Semifinals, ESPN Again Flexes Its Operational Muscle With 20+ MegaCast Vi...
08/01/2026
SVG Students To Watch: Sophie Fowler, University of OregonThe Portland product has honed her skills as a producer, director, and TD at Quack VideoBy Brandon Cos...
08/01/2026
Follow the Money, Episode 3: Inside the Sports-Media Biz With Sam McCleery and K...
08/01/2026
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Qualstar's Jeff Sengpiehl on the Enduring Power a...
08/01/2026
Legendary February: Production Leaders at NBC Sports Pull Back the Curtain on Ol...
07/01/2026
SVG Summit 2025: All General Sessions Now Available To Watch on SVG PLAYThe SVG Summit celebrated its 20th edition with a loaded agendaBy Brandon Costa, Directo...
07/01/2026
NBCU's Brings Rinkside Live' and Courtside Live' Features to Peaco...
06/01/2026
Peacock Bringing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to Live Sports ContentPeacock is the first streamer to embrace Dolbys full suite of advanced picture/sound innovat...
06/01/2026
SVG Europe Audio: Listening to the sounds of powder and ice at Milano Cortina wi...
06/01/2026
Quintar Meta Spatial SDK Integration Promises Next-Level XR ExperiencesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 - 9:41 am
Print This...
06/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: BBC Sport Previews Broadcast Ops, Studio Setup, Social Medi...
06/01/2026
Dolby's Jason Power on Elevating Live Sports Through Immersive Audio and HDR...
06/01/2026
DAZN's Global CRO Walker Jacobs on the Streamer's Breakout Year in the U...
06/01/2026
California Dreamin': LA28's SVP of Media Jim Bell Previews the Olympic a...
06/01/2026
One Month Out From Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBC Sports in Final Prep fo...
06/01/2026
Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Zinwell Integrated onto ATSC 3.0 Conversion Boxe...
06/01/2026
FOX Sports President and COO Mark Silverman Shifts to Consulting RoleHis successor will be announced soonBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, Janu...
05/01/2026
NFL's Blake Jones on How the League's Latest Video Additions Change How ...
05/01/2026
Spiideo's Scott Bushman on How AI Is Already Powering Live Sports ProductionFrom a line of camera systems to its automated production platform, the tech ven...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
FOX Sports' 2025 NASCAR Season Gets Underway With Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium The short-track venue's history with NASCAR dates to 1949 By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
