Welcome to Day 5 of the 2026 Cook Out Clash, the first day on which there is actually on-track action scheduled to take place following a total of three postponements due to snow at Bowman Gray Stadium over the weekend.
Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions were initially moved to Sunday, while Saturday's four 25-lap heat races around the four-turn, 0.25-mile (0.402-kilometer) Winston-Salem, North Carolina oval were canceled altogether.
Then all of Sunday's action, which was also supposed to feature the 75-lap Last Chance Qualifier and the 200-lap main event, was pushed back to Monday. Then it was all pushed back to Wednesday.
There is rain in the forecast on Wednesday afternoon, but NASCAR has rain tires that they can use if needed, because of the fact that Bowman Gray Stadium is a short, flat oval.
Unfortunately, snow might be back in play as well.
Practice and qualifying are scheduled to take place at 1:30 p.m. ET, with live coverage set to be provided by the Fox Sports app. Fox is then set to air the Last Chance Qualifier at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by the Cook Out Clash itself at 6:00 p.m. ET.
Green flag times for those races, however, are 4:33 p.m. ET and 6:20 p.m. ET, respectively.
According to AccuWeather, Winston-Salem is set to be under a winter weather advisory beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening, with between one and two inches of snow and ice expected to begin at around 7:00 p.m. ET.
It means that NASCAR is cutting it very close when it comes to timing, and they really can't afford any more postponements if this event is to ever actually be contested.
Would they be willing to move the start time up slightly, like we've seen in the past, as the winter weather threat inches closer?
Perhaps more importantly, would they still be willing to come back to Bowman Gray Stadium in future years after how this past week has gone weather-wise?
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