In the race between Mother Nature and NASCAR; Mother Nature won after dumping ice and snow over the Winston-Salem, North Carolina area – a portion of the country that does not often see such winter weather.

On Friday, the two day Cook Out Clash event was pared down to a single day event on Sunday; but due to the weather, that has now been postponed to a single day event on Monday.

If necessary, NASCAR will continue to move the season starter until an appropriate day can be found.

NASCAR racing innovation officer Ben Kennedy spoke on the matter saying, “nothing matters more than the safety of our fans, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.  We were ready to fight the weather, and appreciate the collaboration with Winston-Salem and N.C. officials to make the best decision. Our operations team is hard at work for a Monday race.”

In anticipation of roads and parking areas being cleared, NASCAR says that the lots for fans will be open at 9am for 11am practice and qualifying sessions.

Races are scheduled to begin at 6pm with the possibility of the drivers running in the coldest temperatures in NASCAR history.

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson noted, “I don’t know if I’ve ever competed when it’s that cold, but thankfully for us, we’re inside of a stock car, which is basically like a oven, so that’ll help.  It’ll feel fine for us inside the car. I wouldn’t be surprised if you still break, you know, somewhat of a sweat in there.

Larson added, “I feel for the crews and mechanics and fans and NASCAR officials, everybody who’s there outside in the cold. But you know, we love the sport, and we’ll compete in many conditions. I just look forward to the challenge.”

Practice begins at 11am and will be broadcast on FS2.  The qualifying heat races will set the first 20 spots.

The LCQ – Last Chance Qualifier will begin at 4:0pm and will be on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

The 23 car field will take to the track at 6pm for the 200 lap feature race and will be broadcast on FOX.

NASCAR’s senior director of marketing services and overseer of The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Justin Swilling spoke with the media via teleconference on the postponement of racing events saying, “the number one concern is always the safety of our competitors and our fans getting to and from the track.  And in consulting with the North Carolina Department of Transportation this morning and the City of Winston-Salem, we didn’t feel that that a Sunday schedule was best suited anymore, just given what the storm had developed thus far this morning, which is the reason for our decision. And we wanted to do our best to try to keep people off the road and let them know sooner rather than later.”

The snow removal process has already begun with the intent of creating a safe environment for racing and fans.

Swilling added, “we have a tremendous amount of equipment here and we have already started to mobilize that to see how we can best clear the property as soon as the winter weather dissipates, hopefully later this afternoon or into the evening. And as soon as that happens, we are going to go to work. And we have an incredible staff here that’s helping to manage all the equipment and helping to prioritize what needs to be taken care of first versus second versus third. And I feel very confident in our game plan.”

Thirty-eight drivers are entered into The Clash event with 23 of them making it into the 200 lap feature event.

The drivers entered into The Cook Out Clash:
Ross Chastain
Austin Cindric
Austin Dillon
Noah Gragson
Kyle Larson
Corey LaJoie (in for Brad Keselowski)
Daniel Suarez
Kyle Busch
Chase Elliott
Ty Dillon
Denny Hamlin
Ryan Blaney
AJ Allmendinger
Chris Buescher
Chase Briscoe
Christopher Bell
Josh Berry
Joey Logano
Bubba Wallace
William Byron
Todd Gilliland
Riley Herbst
Zane Smith
Cole Custer
John Hunter Nemechek
Erik Jones
Tyler Reddick
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Alex Bowman
Burt Myers
Cody Ware
Ty Gibbs
Ryan Preece
Chad Finchum
Michael McDowell
Carson Hocevar
Connor Zilisch
Shane van Gisbergen