Stenhouse, Gilliland aid snow removal at Bowman Gray as Cook Out Clash gets set for Wednesday

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Ahead of the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, race project lead Justin Swilling said NASCAR would race “come hell or high snow.”

High snow came — in historic amounts across North Carolina’s Piedmont region — and NASCAR is racing The Clash at Bowman Gray in a Wednesday night showdown (6 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

To help clear the grandstands of Mother Nature’s mess, drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland made the Monday pilgrimage to “The Madhouse,” shovels in hand, to dump the snow and ice from what will soon be seats for thousands of rowdy race fans.

MORE: Clash postponed to Wednesday | Updated schedule

Stenhouse, the 2023 Daytona 500 champion, was first to offer his services by sending a Saturday text to NASCAR’s Joey Dennewitz, managing director of NASCAR Regional. That text, Stenhouse explained after shoving more ice out of the way, was under the guise that NASCAR might race Monday night.

“I was hoping so,” laughed Stenhouse, driver of the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet. “I knew that they were gonna need a lot of work to get these grandstands ready. I knew they would have the track ready, so that really wasn’t a concern of mine. But as you can tell, there is a ton of snow still in the grandstand, so I think if we just bust it up enough, the sun will take care of the rest. …

“Clearly, the grandstands aren’t ready to race (Monday night), even though I know this Bowman Gray crowd, they don’t care. They would have sat right in the snow. But we’ll at least give them a few sections that are clear and dry come Wednesday night.”

Snow covers Bowman Gray Stadium.

Gilliland, entering his fifth year driving for Front Row Motorsports and second in its No. 34 Ford, was happy to be back at Bowman Gray on Monday. But he admitted joining the shoveling wasn’t exactly his idea.

“I think they texted Ricky or called him last night and said they’re gonna be doing this, and then he recruited me, so I’m like secondhand,” Gilliland said. “But super fun and super cool to actually see the race track for the first time this year. It’s cool to be here.”

Born in North Carolina and the son of a West Coast racing family, Gilliland didn’t grow up experiencing true winter weather. He has quickly learned its beauties and its curses.

“I tried to shovel my yard yesterday, the first time, and it went about like this — a lot of ice, a lot of snow on top of it,” he said. “So yeah, I’d be good if there’s no more snow, to be honest. More of a warm-weather guy.”

Swilling has overseen every step of the Bowman Gray experience, from getting the track ready in 2025 for its first NASCAR Cup Series event since 1971, all the way to this year’s unexpected snow-out that has led to a midweek Wednesday feature. Swilling conceded this has been a “trying week, just trying to keep up with everything,” but the drivers’ willingness to help and the coordination between NASCAR’s leadership and that of the City of Winston-Salem have encouraged Swilling to keep going.

“Certainly, Mother Nature has not been kind to us the past two weekends, but everybody’s persevered. Everybody’s kept a positive attitude,” Swilling said, pausing to talk between his own shoveling efforts. “Couldn’t thank Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland enough for literally tweeting at us and said, ‘Hey, we got our shovels. We’ll come help if you need it.’ And we took them up on that offer. I think this just shows the sense of community along the NASCAR industry, right? Everybody’s able to pitch in. There’s a lot of these people here that were supposed to work the event, but clearly are not in their working capacity right now as they’re shoveling ice and snow. But everybody’s pitched in and done everything they can, and that’s what makes this so rewarding.”

Though Stenhouse, Gilliland and Swilling will get the spotlight, they were just three among the dozens of workers on the property Monday attempting to get the facility ready for a February event. Some staff used blowtorches to melt ice, while others dumped snow into trash cans to be moved elsewhere.

“The City of Winston-Salem and the Fairgrounds staff that you see behind me, can’t thank them enough,” Swilling said. “We’ve also hired some snow-abatement contractors who know a little bit more about this than we traditionally would at a NASCAR race because we don’t have to deal with this all too often — and I am thankful for that. But no, we’ve got everybody just picking up and rallying. We’ve even got some of the janitorial staff that helps keep the place clean and pristine throughout the weekend, they’ve went out, bought shovels, and they’re out there helping too. So the RM Cleaning team, everybody’s doing an incredible job and couldn’t be more grateful to be a part of the team.”

Workers move snow via trash cans at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Ultimately, the joined forces are taking every measure to ready the facility for the sole purpose of running in front of fans. Sure, “The Madhouse” moniker fits the on-track action, but it also characterizes the passion that drives fans to its weekly races during the spring and summer.

Standing with shovel in hand in the backstretch stands, Stenhouse recalled his first brush with that enthusiasm one year ago after colliding with Burt Myers — hometown hero to some, public enemy No. 1 to others.

“The atmosphere is what makes this place so special,” Stenhouse said from the backstretch bleachers. “And last year was my first taste of Bowman Gray. I never ran anything here before, and I got the full treatment — actually, this section right here. I was parked right here after Burt and I got together, and they were coming down the grandstands letting me know what they thought. Tim Brown fans were giving me the thumbs up, but there was a lot of Burt Myers fans giving me the finger. So yeah, it was this section right here. But hopefully these people will be a lot nicer to me since I at least helped clear their grandstands.”

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During teleconferences over the weekend, Swilling said all options had been considered amid the historic winter storms, including running The Clash without spectators on the property. He just couldn’t see that happening.

“I don’t think we can have a race at Bowman Gray Stadium without the fans,” Swilling said. “That’s why we wanted to postpone to Wednesday, to give ourselves some time to get this place ready for them because it’s the perfect balance of competitive drama and drama in the stands as well, and everybody feeds off of that. So it’s important to have every element of ‘The Madhouse’ to make it ‘The Madhouse.””

“I mean, dude, this is one of the coolest places ever,” Gilliland said. “Like last year, we were walking around in driver intros, and I mean, this is as close as the fans will ever get to the race track. So it’s awesome to see that. Yeah, obviously, they’re well known here for being really crazy and very passionate, and I think that’s what makes NASCAR so cool in general, just the passionate fans that we have. So yeah, it’s awesome. And yeah, we’re getting a lot of seats cleared off, so all you fans better come out.”

On-track activities begin with practice and qualifying at 1:30 p.m. ET on the FOX Sports App, followed by the 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier at 4:30 p.m. on FOX. Twenty-three cars will take the grid for the 200-lap feature for the Cook Out Clash at 6 p.m. ET on FOX.