WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Growing up in High Point, North Carolina, Ryan Blaney learned about the legacy Bowman Gray Stadium early on.
First as a spectator, then as a preteen racing and eventually winning, Blaney quickly discovered how the quarter-mile track earned the moniker the Madhouse.
Still, the former NASCAR Cup champion is thrilled to return to his roots at a track that hasn’t hosted the top stock car series since 1971.
“I ran here 20 years ago or so in Bandoleros so it’s nice to be back,” Blaney said. “Obviously, the reputation of this place, there are a lot of people around the area that love Bowman Gray and the track is really historic.
“It’s a good race for this Clash. You have the ability to move this race around to different parts of the country, so that’s nice.”
Blaney, 31, still remembers the accolades he received from his schoolmates when he first won at a venue that first hosted racing in 1939.
“I grew up in High Point, so kind of this Triad area, so I had a lot of friends and family that came here a lot on the weekends,” Blaney said. “I had some buddies that were at that race and they thought it was pretty cool that, ‘Hey, you ran at Bowman Gray. I watched you at Bowman Gray.’
“You’re just a kid and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. That was awesome.’ Back then in a Bandelero, this place is massive and it’s just funny putting it into perspective of what you don’t know and now this is the smallest place we go to with what we do, but it was just neat to run there back then and just kind of be overwhelmed by the people. That was the most people you ever raced in front of at that age and you saw the passion.”
Although the third-generation racer had visited—and raced—at tracks around the country, Blaney immediately knew the environment at Bowman Gray was different.
“I was getting shot the bird by kids younger than me when I was 10,” Blaney said. “It’s like, ‘OK. This is what this place is about.’ People like you or not and I don’t even think they didn’t like me.
“I was 10 years old. What’s not to like about a 10-year-old? They just did what their parents were doing, so that part was pretty funny to me. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of that tomorrow night.”
Following three years racing The Clash at the Coliseum, Blaney capped off the run with a career-best finish of third. What would it mean to win at his home track?
“This is an exhibition race,” Blaney said. “It’s the Clash, but you still want to win it and you want to win at neat places, historical places like this. Those guys who won at the Coliseum, that’s a really historic place. (They) can say that I won at the Coliseum in L.A. and here it’s the same way. I think to be able to have that title would be pretty cool.
“And, like I said, it has home ties to me, so that’s another thing that I think would be special.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
