Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher earned the front row for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium after leading wire-to-wire in their respective heat races.
The four heat races determined the first 20 drivers locked into Sunday’s main event. All others will fight for two remaining spots through the Last Chance Qualifying race. The 23rd and final spot will go to the highest driver from the 2024 championship standings who was not already locked into the Clash.
Elliott and Buescher won the first two heat races. Both started on the pole in their respective 25-lappers. The top five finishers in each heat race advanced into the Clash.
The first heat was the most aggressive, featuring three cautions after drivers utilized their bumpers. Elliott faced little challenge throughout.
Austin Dillon was the first caution after catching the apron and spinning by himself on lap three off Turn 2.
The second caution on lap six came when the pushing and shoving in the pack came to a head as Kyle Busch shoved Justin Haley, who went airborne as he ran over the left-rear quarter panel of Noah Gragson. Gragson spun, bringing out the yellow.
When the race restarted, it quickly went to caution again, this time for Josh Berry spinning in Turn 3. At the same time, Haley spun Busch. Under caution, Busch pushed Haley for multiple laps be fore getting a “final warning” from NASCAR to get off Haley’s bumper.
The top five finishers who advanced were Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Gragson, Busch, and Ross Chastain.
“It’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row,” Elliott said of track position at Bowman Gray. “I think the first couple of rows certainly have a massive advantage on the rest of the field. Obviously anything can happen. I’ve been doing this … long enough to know anything can happen. I’m well aware of that, but I 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.”