NASCAR will waive the green flag on their 67th season with a trip to Bowman Gray Stadium, otherwise known as “The Madhouse” Sunday night.
Danny “Chocolate” Meyers (his family has a legacy at Bowman Gray Stadium) told the fans at The Madhouse, “Thank you race fans for sticking with us while we went other places, but now we are coming home.” It is nice to see NASCAR return to their roots and put on a show for the people who show up every Saturday night in the same seats to watch many of the same drivers compete (and fight) with each other.
I am not going to pretend to know everything about Bowman Gray Stadium. I have never been there and I have never seen a race at The Madhouse. I did my research and I know fans and drivers must stop at Pulliam’s for a hotdog before the race and that the best drivers in the history of NASCAR had a lot of success at this track.
Bowman Gray Stadium is a .25-mile track, with no banking. It is similar to what The Clash at the Coliseum has been for the last two years. The main difference between The Madhouse and The Coliseum will be the temperature and the racing surface. I will use many of the stats from the two Clash Races in California to help predict the winner for the first race at the Madhouse since 1971.
CLASH AT THE COLISEUM FORMAT
The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium will use the same format as the Clash at Coliseum. There were four Heat Races, followed by a Last Chance Qualifying Race (LCQ) to determine the field for the Clash Race Sunday. The Heat Races and the LCQ Race were canceled last year, so it is good that we got to see the cars on the track before we have to set our lineups.
The Heat Races and the LCQ will lock 22 drivers into the show and a 23rd driver will be added based on last year’s Cup Series Points Standings. The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is scheduled for 200 laps. That means there are 50 DK Points available for leading laps and 90 DK Points available for fastest laps (140 dominator points). It will be important to score as many of these dominator points as possible Sunday night.
*Only Green-Flag Laps count in the race.
CLASH RACE PRACTICE SPEEDS
The practice for the Clash at the Coliseum was canceled last year, but we can learn a lot by looking at the results from the first Clash race in California. The driver who had the fastest speed I practice that year was Martin Truex Jr. Guess who won the race? Your right, it was MTJ. The second-fastest driver was Bubba Wallace. The No. 23 car led the second-most laps in the featured race in 2023. Here are the practice speeds from Saturday…
We can learn a bit from the practice speeds, but starting position is important too. Five of the drivers who finished in the top-six last year all started in the top-eight starting positions. Denny Hamlin won the pole, led 58 laps and won the race last year at the Clash at the Coliseum.
CLASH RACE HEAT RACE RESULTS
HEAT RACE 1
HEAT RACE 2
HEAT RACE 3
HEAT RACE 4
CLASH AT THE COLISEUM STATS TO USE FOR THIS WEEKEND
The best way to predict the future is to analyze the past. Here are the stats from the two races at the Clash at the Coliseum in California, sorted by DraftKings Points…
DRAFTKINGS STRATEGIES FOR CLASH AT BOWMAN GRAY
Bowman Gray Stadium is a tiny track. We need drivers who can lead laps in this race. The winner of your DFS Contests will likely have the three drivers who lead the most laps in their lineup. It really does not matter who the rest of your lineup does because there are only 23 drivers in the race. The driver who finishes last will score 19 DK finishing points.
My strategy will be to pair three dominators with three drivers who start in the back and cannot kill my lineup. As long as the three dominators lead the most laps, we should be good-to-go.
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENRT CONTEST PICKS
* You are going to need at least three dominators in your lineup because you need to capture as many of the laps led and fastest laps bonus points as possible.
** The DFS Picks will be much more detailed in the regular season races and they will include the point’s prediction model.
Follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR
If you like Fantasy NASCAR, LIKE my Fantasy NASCAR Tips Page on Facebook