WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The exhibition Clash at Bowman had everything viewers expected from an intensity standpoint. Drivers punted each other out of the way, flipped each other off, and made angry comments over the radio.
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The race also had 17 cautions, an average speed of 21.39 mph, and even some sleet that forced drivers to go to wet-weather tires. At the end, Ryan Preece won his first race at the Cup Series level, marking an emotional moment in his career.
Simply put, no one really knew how to react to what happened on Wednesday night in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
"A pretty wild day," Ryan Blaney said after finishing third with a damaged No. 12 Ford Mustang. Rookie Connor Zilisch wholeheartedly agreed while calling this a "very chaotic race."
MORE: Full Clash results
Blaney and Zilisch were far from the only members of the NASCAR industry looking around after the 50-mile race that took more than two hours of green flag time to complete.
A general sense of confusion descended upon the garage area as crew members, drivers, and PR reps reacted to what exactly had unfolded at the historic short track.
"I don't know," Carson Hocevar said when asked to describe this race. "The racing purist in me is like, 'Man, this is way different than when like (Dale Jr.) was tweeting,' 20 years ago the Clash being about 12 laps at Daytona.
"I don't know. I enjoyed it. It's not up to us to enjoy or have that opinion. We'll race if we're racing in a parking lot, or we're pretty close at this rate. I'm just glad we're racing."
Preece, who had the most colorful radio chatter in the field, even commented at one point that they needed to find the person in charge of the decision to go racing in the sleet so that they could take the windshield wipers off of their car and tell them to drive home.
"The fact that we are even out here driving around, I've lost all faith in NASCAR," crew chief Derrick Finley says.
"There are a lot of drivers out here who feel the same way," Ryan Preece responds. "So whoever it is, we should probably go find their car, take the windshield…— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) February 5, 2026
"I mean, everybody probably enjoyed my radio chatter tonight," Preece said during his post-race presser. "One thing that stood out is when I said we should probably take somebody's windshield wipers off and let them drive in the rain. So I do remember I got a little fiery with that one.
"And it's not easy, because you think about it, there's a lot of mist and dirt and everything on windshield, and you're bowing rip, fighting the track, you're fighting the conditions. I'm happy right now because I'm standing here in front of you — or sitting here in front of you with a trophy next to me, and everything happened to go my way."
Many others did not get this fairytale ending to the short track race. Shane van Gisbergen, who led multiple times, finished 20th after being collected in a late wreck. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott both ran out of fuel. Denny Hamlin caught air after being hit from behind and sent into Elliott's car.
#NASCAR - Austin Dillon had numerous issues with his tires during the first half of the race. He said that the wet weather and the sleet actually helped him make moves.
He just had some run-ins with other drivers in the second half, specifically, Ryan Blaney. pic.twitter.com/Lc11SL2h9r— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) February 5, 2026
Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry, and several other drivers in the 23-car field dealt with incidents throughout the night. This included sliding into the wall after losing control on the sleet-covered surface or going through the grass after contact from another driver.
"It was just a marathon race," William Byron said. "I feel like NASCAR did a good job with the rain conditions.
"I wish we would have had a practice session in the rain, just to kind of understand the characteristics a little better. It just seemed like guys were kind of using each other up. But then it started to dry up there at the end and it was fun."
This race just had a little bit of everything, including a short track racer finally breaking through on the big stage.
