
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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Catgut Sound Owner and Production Sound Mixer Chris Welcker, CAS, has built a career at the intersection of music and film. A former musician and composer, Welc...
07/04/2026
SDVI Corporation today announced the next generation of its Rally media supply chain management platform, introducing a redesigned orchestration engine that rep...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...
07/04/2026
April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...
07/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...
07/04/2026
Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...
07/04/2026
Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867):
Cuez ...
07/04/2026
CueScript to Showcase Innovations at NAB that Add Mobility Options, Ease Editing...
07/04/2026
Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder
Brie Clayton April 7, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...
07/04/2026
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...
07/04/2026
Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...
07/04/2026
Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
07/04/2026
THE GAA CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE BACK WITH A BANG
LIVE AND FREE TO AIR ACROSS ALL RT PLATFORMS
The Sunday Game and The Sunday Game Live return on Sunday 12 April
L...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...