What channel is the NASCAR Clash on today? Start time, TV schedule, live streams to watch 2026 race at Bowman Gray originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

NASCAR fanatics, the wait is finally over. The 2026 Cup Series is kicking off at Bowman Gray Stadium with the Cook Out Clash.

After relocating to Winston-Salem, North Carolina last year, the Clash remains a highly anticipated event on the racing schedule. While the competition will be hot, the temperatures will be cold after a winter storm hit the Carolinas this weekend and pushed the race to Wednesday.

The Clash will be the perfect debut to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series, bringing all the best racers together for 200 laps at historic Bowman Gray Stadium. Chase Elliott is the defending champion, but who will take the checkered flag this year?

Here's everything you need to know about NASCAR Clash 2026, including TV channel and streaming options for the race at Bowman Gray.

What channel is the NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray on today?

• TV channel: Fox
• Live stream:Fubo

Fans can watch the 2026 Cook Out Clash live on Fox or stream the race on Fubo.

Fubo offers a free trial for new subscribers, so you can try the service before you buy. Stream ESPN, ABC, CBS, Fox and 100+ top channels of live TV and sports without cable. (Participating plans only. Taxes and fees may apply.)

NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray start time

• Date: Wednesday, Feb. 4
• Time: 6 p.m. ET

The NASCAR Cook Out Clash's main event takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. ET at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

NASCAR Clash 2026 radio station

• Radio station:SiriusXM channel 90

Fans can listen to the NASCAR Clash 2026 on SiriusXM. The race will be broadcast on channel 90.

New subscribers can listen to SiriusXM for free for four months. Listen to live NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL games, plus NASCAR, college sports and more. Stay updated with all the news and get all the analysis on multiple sport-specific channels.

NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray schedule 2026

Wednesday, Feb. 4

NASCAR Cup Series schedule 2026

(All times Eastern)

NASCAR Cup Series playoff race schedule 2026

(All times Eastern)

Wyatt Miller, the teenage grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., is quickly growing into a highly skilled race car driver. After a successful 2025 season, which included his first Limited Late Model victory at Hickory Speedway, he is preparing for a long and arduous 2026 campaign. His mother, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, recently spoke about the busy schedule ahead.

Wyattalso won the Championship Off-Road Series title last year and will compete in the series again this season, driving for Ryan Beat Motorsports. In addition, he will race Junior Late Models while regularly venturing into micros and outlaw karts. Kelley expects the season to be a fun one that will also teach her son many new lessons.

Kelley Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, “They just went to Texas to seat fit because Wyatt is going to be racing sprint car 360s this year. Which is making mom nervous, but we’ll get through it just like we have everything else.

“So, we’ve got a full slate. Probably over 50-60 events,” she said.

The 13-year-old is already beginning to be known for his versatility across dirt micro-sprints, limited late models, and off-road trucks. His reputation will only grow tighter when the upcoming season comes to a close. It goes without saying that all this heavy preparation is for him to get into the big stage someday and live up to his family legacy.

What is it like for Kelley to watch her son race?

Many young kids, some of whom are the children of current Cup Series drivers, are racing professionally with the dreams of being a NASCAR driver someday. The mothers of every single one of them will acknowledge that watching them speed on the track is a scary affair and Kelleyis no different.

She said that watching him race in sprint cars makes her a bit scared. But the trucks are a different game. They are built very solidly and don’t cause a lot of concern. The Late Models don’t worry her a lot either. It is only with the winged and non-winged sprint cars that she has a problem.

“The winged and the sprint cars and the non-winged stuff is stressful and a lot of the tracks that they talk about going to are some bigger tracks and they’re going really fast,” she said. “So, it makes me nervous. But at the same time, this is what we are. We’re a racing family. This is what we do. You can’t talk them out of it. He’s got it from both sides. His dad and I. So, we roll with it.”

With the way young Wyatt is progressing, he will be up there with the best of the best in no time. Hopefully, his 2026 season will be as successful as his 2025 one.

The post Kelley Earnhardt Miller Drops Huge Update on Son Wyatt Miller’s Racing Plans for 2026 appeared first on The SportsRush.

JR Motorsports officially became a part of the NASCAR Cup Series field in 2025, with Justin Allgaier finishing P9 in his #40 JRM Chevy. He made the race as the highest-finishing open driver in the Duel qualifying races. This year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to achieve bigger things and is admittedly nervous about it.

It was a no-brainer for Dale Jr. and his sister Kelley to return to the Daytona 500, considering it’s the most important race of the season.

Still, while Junior admitted to feeling jittery about attempting the race again, Kelley revealed on a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download that she was not overly anxious about JR Motorsports’ second attempt at the 500.

Kelley stated on Dirty Do Media, “I’m not an anxious person whatsoever. I am super calm. I feel like, especially when you’re going to do something for the second time, I feel more prepared, more ready. I know what to expect.”

“I know how hard it was last year against the other competitors to make that race and all. And so, now I have a little bit of understanding about what we’re going to go through and what could happen or might not happen.”

“And I still have high expectations, obviously, to do well and to make the race. I’m kind of a it is what it is kind of person. I don’t get too hyped up on. I have a little saying on my social that says don’t worry about what you can’t control,” she continued.

Dale Jr., on the other hand,admitted to feeling nervous about the Daytona 500. His concern stems from Chevrolet revamping the Camaro ZL1 for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season and unveiling a sleeker, more aerodynamic body set to hit the track. His concern centers on the unknowns that come with a brand-new car body.

Anytime a manufacturer introduces a new body, they do not arrive at Daytona and perform better. Teams remain in discovery mode, figuring out what makes that body perform at a track like that. When a manufacturer introduces a new body design, teams spend the early races playing catch-up, trying to understand how it behaves under pressure.

The challenges extend beyond horsepower and handling and include unlocking the sweet spot where aerodynamics meet balance. Manufacturers also tend to focus on optimizing the new body for the sport’s most visited tracks, which are intermediates, which is why Junior is apprehensive.

The post Kelley Earnhardt Miller Not Too Nervous About JR Motorsports’ Second Date With the Daytona 500 appeared first on The SportsRush.

Last year, Chase Briscoe cracked the top four, the height of his NASCAR Cup career thus far. He elevated his on-track presence upon switching to Joe Gibbs Racing. Although he improved on road courses as well, his performance on the twisty stuff still fell short of his performance on ovals. Of 30 starts on road courses, Briscoe has finished just two inside the top five and nine within the top ten, carrying an average finish of 18.4.

Still, the No. 19 driver somehow relishes heading to such facilities. During a recent trip to Austin to promote the First Responders Appreciation Weekend at COTA, Briscoe opened up about the topic.

“I surprisingly love road courses. It’s something that even at the beginning of my career, I loved going to them. I was just four or five seconds off the pace, and I had no clue where to get faster. And then I went and did a lot of road course racing and just kind of started to understand what I needed to be doing different. And I love road course racing now. It’s one of my favorite things to do,” he stated.

While the Indiana native joked about feeling slightly less excited now that Shane van Gisbergen competes in the field because it proves a little harder to win, Briscoe does enjoy visiting road courses simply because, as a driver, he feels he can make a bit more of a difference.

Briscoe also confessed to enjoying the COTA racetrack overall, even though his average finish on the circuit stands at 15.6 across five starts. He has finished just one race inside the top ten there. Yet he loves the track in Austin, which also hosts F1 in America.

Briscoe’s sole complaint about COTA centers on how the track’s S-curves after the first hairpin are difficult to officiate in the series, and there exists considerable gray area, which presents one frustrating aspect: corner cutting.

Briscoe’s road course improvement in 2025 after moving to JGR.

Moving from SHR to JGR provided him with better machinery, which strengthened his performance across all track types, including road courses. Stewart-Haas Racing’s declining competitiveness in its final seasons hampered Briscoe’s development, masking his potential due to inadequate equipment and diminished technical support.

Last year, he showed improved, consistent speed on the tracks, with top-ten finishes in three of the six road-course races. His strongest performance among the road course contests came at Sonoma Raceway, where, after starting the race from second position, he finished in the same spot.

In Mexico City, Briscoe rolled off from 19th but accelerated to reach seventh by the time the checkered flag waved. Before 2025, Briscoe characterized his Cup road course performance as “hit-or-miss,” noting he would either run very well or be “just off.” Heading into 2026, that might be the case anymore.

The post Chase Briscoe Relishes Racing At Road Courses Despite Poor Record and Looming SVG Threat appeared first on The SportsRush.

NASCAR driver Christopher Bell knows what it feels like to be close.

Close to a Daytona 500 win, sustaining a dominant season and competing for a Cup Series crown, Bell enters 2026 chasing consistency — the difference between strong seasons and title-winning ones.

Bell’s 2025 run delivered mixed results. He posted a career-high four wins, 22 top-10 finishes (tied for most with champion Kyle Larson) and a series-leading average finish of 11.2. Yet Bell’s best season didn’t unfold as he’d hoped.

It started with heartbreak.

Bell’s best bid to win the Daytona 500 ended abruptly with a crash on Lap 195, ultimately leaving him 31st but oh-so-close, according to his calculations. Third-place finishes in 2023 and 2024 were more impressive on paper than on the asphalt of Daytona International Speedway, site of the 68th edition of the Great American Race on Feb. 15.

“I was in position to win,” Bell recalled. “I was in the front of the pack and unfortunately got wrecked out. But it’s a place that anybody can win at any time.

“We’ve seen that over the years.”

Rather than bemoan a close-call, Bell responded with three consecutive victories, establishing himself as the car to beat in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20.

Instead, the hot streak cooled.

Following a March 10 win at Phoenix, Bell went 24 races until he prevailed Sept. 13 at Bristol despite 11 top-10 finishes along the way.

“I’m proud of the 2025 season,” he said. “I just need to do a little bit better job of capitalizing on the opportunities that we have to win.”

Bell, 31, is widely regarded as one of NASCAR’s top young drivers.

Since a maiden victory on Daytona’s road course in 2021, a race created in 2020 as a temporary event in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bell has added a dozen wins to sit at the head of the ballyhooed 2020 rookie crop. The class also featured Tyler Reddick, an eight-time winner, and Cole Custer, who has managed to reach Victory Lane just once.

But Bell is quick to credit his affiliation with Joe Gibbs Racing and its Hall of Fame owner.

“In this sport, you’re only as good as the race car you’re in,” Bell said.

A native of Norman, Okla., Bell sees parallels between his journey and that of his beloved Sooners. Oklahoma reached the 2025 College Football Playoff after several uneven seasons, only to suffer a crushing home loss after leading Alabama 17-0 in the opening round.

“It’s been rough a little bit for us, but we had a pretty good season this year,” Bell said. “It’s kind of like me. We have to build on it and try and get a little bit better.”

Timing could be everything for Bell.

NASCAR’s revamped postseason format did away with the elimination-style playoff system in place since 2014 and returned to a 10-race “Chase,” where the champion is determined by total points across the final stretch.

The top 16 drivers in the regular-season standings will qualify, with the highest point total after the Nov. 8 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway crowned champion.

Steady, consistent and rarely out of contention, Bell is poised to capitalize.

Bell saw the old format undercut JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, who won six races in 2025 and dominated the season finale at Phoenix until a late caution undid his championship hopes.

“All of us thought that Denny did everything right to win the championship, and it just didn’t work out for him,” Bell said. “Hopefully we get on track to being able to reward the right guy for the championship.”

Bell wants that driver to be him, with the next chapter of a promising career written at the Daytona 500.

“Hopefully I get to continue writing my storybook here that I’ve got going on,” he said. “Hopefully I’m just getting started.”