Elliott & Buescher Win Heats; Earn Clash Front Row Spots

Chase Elliott (9) will start on the pole of the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium after heat races. (Erick Messer/BGS photo)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher topped their respective NASCAR Cup Series heat races Saturday night at Bowman Gray Stadium and earned front-row starting spots for Sunday’s Cook Out Clash exhibition event.

Elliott stayed clear of all the drama behind him in heat one, leading all 25 laps in the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet en route to both the heat victory and the pole for Sunday’s 200-lap Clash finale.

It gives the Dawsonville, Ga., native and 2020 Cup Series champion the best seat in the house to start the preseason non-points event, something Elliott noted will be “critical” for success over the long haul at the quarter-mile bullring.

“You saw it in the heats; it’s going to be really tough, I think, to win from the third or fourth row,” Elliott said afterward. “I think the first couple of rows have a massive advantage on the rest of the field.

“Anything can happen – I’m well aware – but I think if you have the normal circumstances of people not totally crashing each other right away, I certainly would want to be in the first couple of rows,” he added. “Hopefully this is a good omen and we can stay out in front and out of the chaos.”

While Elliott kept his nose clean, three cautions in the first seven laps of the opening 25-lap heat kept the field bunched up for a while, with Kyle Busch and Justin Haley trading blows several times.

Once green conditions resumed on lap seven, however, they stayed out the rest of the way. Keselowski finished second, 2.3 seconds back of Elliott, with Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch, and Ross Chastain also transferring into the Clash out of the first heat.

Heats two and three ran uninterrupted from start to finish, with 25 laps of green-flag action serving as a stark contrast to the drama of the first heat race.

Chris Buescher led all the way from the pole in heat two to earn the outside pole for Sunday night’s finale, earning his third appearance in the Clash and first since 2021 in the process.

Buescher credited new teammate Ryan Preece for helping RFK Racing improve their flat-track program and aiding him in finding speed Saturday. He was 30th in practice before winning his heat later on.

“I think we learned a lot of what not to do the last few years (at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), because we weren’t good any of the times we went there (for the Clash), and even though we found some things that made us better we still needed a pretty big overhaul,” noted Buescher. “Preece has been a pretty big mover for us on these flat short tracks already.

“Some of the things that he’s done over the years that have worked have really helped us excel right away, I feel like, and you’ve seen that be beneficial to RFK as a whole,” he continued. “We’ve got a lot of racing to do Sunday night, but this is a good start.”

Chase Briscoe closed late in heat two but finished .337 seconds back as the runner-up. Rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez also earned transfer spots out of the second heat.

Denny Hamlin immediately surged to the point in heat three and never trailed, besting defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano by 1.77 seconds, with William Byron, Carson Hocevar, and Alex Bowman crossing third through fifth and also moving into the Clash.

The fourth and final heat, however, saw cautions return even as Tyler Reddick led the last 25-lap contest from flag to flag.

Cole Custer cleaned out A.J. Allmendinger on lap five, while Preece shipped John Hunter Nemechek into the turn-four wall on the ensuing restart, both leading to slowdowns that brought the fans to their feet.

None of that was any consequence to Reddick, though. He cruised to the heat-four win over Christopher Bell, while Preece climbed from sixth to third as the biggest mover of the final qualifying race.

Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland were the final two transfers into Sunday’s Cook Out Clash main event.

As the winners of heats three and four, Hamlin and Reddick will share row two of the Clash grid Sunday.

Notables having to race the 75-lap last chance qualifier on Sunday include Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, and Bowman Gray modified aces Burt Myers and Tim Brown, both of whom landed Cup Series rides for the Clash weekend.

Ryan Blaney failed to transfer out of his heat race after a late spin, but is in line for the provisional starting spot available to the highest driver not locked in from last year’s point standings should he need it.

Sunday’s Cup Series action at Bowman Gray Stadium resumes at 6 p.m. ET with the 75-lap last chance qualifier before the 200-lap Cook Out Clash finale takes center stage at 8 p.m. Every lap will be broadcast live on FOX, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.