The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Bowman Gray Stadium next year, visiting a short track important to its history for the season-opening NASCAR Clash. Bowman Gray Stadium is also the HBCU football home of Winston-Salem State University, which plays its home games on the field surrounded by the legendary racetrack.

The news was announced Saturday by Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer, during pre-race ceremonies at the historic quarter-mile oval in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His great-grandfather – NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. – had helped promote it, along with charter official Alvin Hawkins. Earlier this year, NASCAR took over management of racing operations at the HBCU football stadium from the Hawkins family, beginning a new chapter for NASCAR’s oldest weekly racetrack.

The non-points race is scheduled for Sunday, February 2, 2025, and will be broadcast live on FOX. The Clash has been contested for the past three seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on a temporary quarter-mile track based on the design of the Bowman Gray flat asphalt that surrounds the football field. The stadium has been used as a testing ground for NASCAR’s next-gen car on such a track, with a Goodyear tire test and feasibility study conducted in the months leading up to the first running of The Clash in LA.

To commemorate the return of Bowman Gray, NASCAR Studios and FOX Sports Films are producing a one-hour documentary entitled The Madhouse: NASCAR’s return to Bowman Gray Stadium which will premiere on FS1. The film will explore the venue’s rich and boisterous history while weaving a narrative focused on the lead-up to The Clash in 2025. More details on the documentary, including when fans can see it on FS1, will be announced at a later date.

“We’re returning to the Madhouse at Bowman Gray Stadium,” Kennedy said. “Bringing our Cup Series back there for the first time since the 1970s will be another historic event. I would say in many ways this will be an opportunity to celebrate our roots, our history and our regional NASCAR series.”

Bowman Gray Stadium hosted Cup Series points races from 1958 to 1971, and the list of winners includes a collection of NASCAR Hall of Fame members — including Richard and Lee Petty, David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Bobby Allison, Glen Wood and Rex White. Several current Cup Series drivers — including Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace — have competed in the event, now called the ARCA Menards Series East. Kennedy enjoyed a memorable win at the track in 2013 with his family in the stadium.

Bowman Gray Stadium has long held a special place in the hearts of the France family. The track has hosted weekly NASCAR events since the 1949 season, the same year the NASCAR Cup Series was launched as a Strictly Stock division. Former NASCAR President Bill France Jr. met his future wife, Betty Jane Zachary, at the stadium in 1957. NASCAR executives Jim France and Lesa France Kennedy were on hand to cheer Ben Kennedy’s triumph on the quarter-mile oval in 2013.

HBCU Winston-Salem State has played football at Bowman Gray Stadium since 1956. The stadium is one of the most unique in the CIAA and was recently ranked as one of the 13 most picturesque stadiums in NCAA Division II football.

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NASCAR Cup Series returns to historic HBCU stadium and racetrack