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Chase Elliott Secures Clash Pole, Buescher Second After Heat Race Wins

Toby Christie

Chase Elliott will start from the pole position in Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium after taking the win in Heat Race 1 on Saturday night.
Chase Elliott will start from the pole position in Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium after taking the win in Heat Race 1 on Saturday night. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Chase Elliott will start from the most advantageous position in the field in Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the first NASCAR Cup Series event at the legendary short track since 1971. The Hendrick Motorsports driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet earned the pole position after spanking the field in Saturday night's Heat Race 1.

While the opening Heat Race, of four, was a wild one, Elliott was able to keep his nose clean out front and he led all 25 laps on his march to the Heat victory.

The driver from Dawsonville, GA knows there are a lot of things that can happen throughout 200 laps at The Madhouse, but he is very confident heading into the Main Event with the pole position after seeing how key track position was on Saturday night.

"Absolutely, it's going to be tough to win from third, fourth row. I think the first couple of rows, certainly, have a massive advantage over the rest of the field," Elliott explained in his pole-winner press conference. "Obviously, anything can happen, I've been doing this, y'all have been watching this long enough to know anything can happen. I'm well aware of that. But I just think in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever, yeah, I certainly would want to be on the first couple of rows, and fortunately we are. So, we'll try to take advantage of that."

Elliott will be joined on the front row on Sunday by RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, who also led every lap of a much more tame Heat Race 2. For Buescher, a six-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, this will be his first appearance in the Cook Out Clash Main Event.

Buescher had been shut out of making the Main Event field in each of the three seasons (2022-2024) that the Clash was held at the 0.250-mile LA Memorial Coliseum. Buescher, who admits his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford wasn't very sporty in the three years at the Coliseum, credits his new teammate Ryan Preece, who moved to RFK Racing from the now defunct Stewart-Haas Racing in the offseason, for the turnaround on the flat 0.250-mile Bowman Gray.

"For us, a lot of things we learned of what not to do at [the Coliseum], and we weren't good any of the times we went. We steadily found some things out where we were a little bit better, but ultimately, needed a pretty big overhaul.," Buescher stated. "I would say that [Ryan] Preece has been a pretty big mover for us on some of these flat short tracks. You know, some of the things he's done through the years that have worked really well. Last year, they kind of excelled in this style of race, that was really beneficial to RFK as a whole."

If Preece was the key to the RFK Racing turnaround at short, flat tracks, Saturday night really showcased it as all three RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horses locked their positions in Sunday's Cook Out Clash Main Event.

Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag in Heat Race 3, and Tyler Reddick took the win in Heat Race 4 to secure the third and fourth starting positions in Sunday's Main Event for the Toyota Racing duo. Like Elliott and Buescher, Hamlin and Reddick led all 25 laps in their respective Heat Races.

In all, 20 drivers locked in their positions in Sunday's Main Event through their finishes in Saturday night's Heat Races.

In addition to Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch, and Ross Chastain advanced from Heat Race 1.

For Busch, who rallied to finish fourth in Heat Race 1, he overcame a pushing and shoving match with Justin Haley, which resulted in cosmetic damage and a spin during the opening Heat Race.

After his spin, Busch showed his displeasure with Haley by ramming into the rear of Haley's car during the caution period. The retaliation from Busch under caution led to multiple warnings from NASCAR Race Control to stop the shenanigans, which Busch did on the final warning.

Chase Briscoe, Shane van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez were the drivers that locked into the Main Event alongside Buescher in Heat Race 2.

The four drivers that advanced behind Hamlin in Heat Race 3 were Joey Logano, William Byron, Carson Hocevar, and Alex Bowman.

And finally, Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, and Todd Gilliland secured their spots in Sunday's Cook Out Clash Main event along with Reddick, the Heat Race 4 winner.

Preece narrowly avoided a multi-car accident early in Heat Race 4 as Cole Custer got together with AJ Allmendinger, which sent Allmendinger into the outside wall. Custer was battling Allmendinger for the final transfer spot (fifth) at the time of the crash.

Later in Heat Race 4, Preece once again found himself near trouble, however, this time he was in the middle of the pushing and shoving. After John Hunter Nemechek made contact with Todd Gilliland, it sent Preece skidding out of line.

Preece didn't take too kindly to the move by Nemechek, and he proceeded to punt Nemechek in Turn 3.

With 20 positions locked in, three slots remain up for grabs in the starting lineup of the 2025 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Starting positions 21 and 22 will be awarded to the drivers that finish first and second in Sunday night's 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier Race, while the final starting spot in the field will go to the highest driver in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, who has yet to lock into the field.

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Toby Christie
TOBY CHRISTIE

Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.

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