The NASCAR Cup Series season informally begins with Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. The non-points paying race is the annual opening exhibition in the Cup season, with this year's race taking place at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time.

Chase Elliott, the sport’s most popular driver each of the past seven years, and his close friend Ryan Blaney, ran 1-2 with less than 50 laps laps before Elliott pulled away to win the Cook Out Clash in the first NASCAR Cup race at Bowman Gray Stadium since 1971.