Bowman Gray Stadium will host the Busch Light Clash next year, but it can hardly be considered a new event.
Sure, many of us weren’t even born yet when the Cup Series last turned a lap at the bullring in central North Carolina back in 1971. So it gives the illusion of a beginning, but it’s actually more of a return.
Not to mention, other NASCAR divisions have seen action on the quarter-mile oval in the more recent past. Drivers who have already raced between the walls of Bowman Gray include Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Corey Lajoie, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez.
This is nothing new though. Essentially all Cup ‘inaugural’ events aren’t really new to all of the drivers. Every track has hosted some form of racing, often long before the cars and stars of Cup racing come to town.
For example, the first Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was in 1998. Mark Martin won in a rout for Ford and the newly utilized Taurus. Of the drivers not piloting a racing version of Ford’s flagship sedan, only one (Dale Earnhardt in eighth) finished in the top 14 positions. While the Blue Oval brigade did stink up the show a bit, the first weekend for NASCAR in the desert was seen as a success.
Except for the fact that it was not the first weekend for NASCAR in Las Vegas. I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing that. This was 1998 after all, when not everything was televised and there was no social media to provide updates on the more obscure series. Sure, Cup races would make the sports section, but good luck finding out who won the pole for an upcoming truck race or the results of a modified event.
The NASCAR Cup Series was actually the last to arrive at the party in Sin City. In November 1996, the K&N Pro Series West (now the ARCA Menards Series West) and Craftsman Truck Series held a companion weekend. Cup regular Ken Schrader became the first NASCAR winner by taking the checkered flag in the K&N show. He was followed the next day by truck winner Jack Sprague.
Even the Xfinity Series drivers beat the Cup stars by a year. Jeff Green scored his first Xfinity win in March of 1997 in an unsponsored ride, besting a field that included seven full-time Cup competitors.
Most inaugural Cup races from that era were the culmination of the first race weekend at a facility. Texas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway and Kansas Speedway all featured the top level of NASCAR on their debut weekends. Sparkling…
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