For the 46th year in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series will begin its season with the non-points Clash but this time takes the event close to home at venerable Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

This weekend in Winston-Salem -- a little ways off from the tobacco farms and not far from the greater Charlotte area -- the Carolina winter will heat up and the earth will roar back to life with the beginning of a new year for NASCAR with its annual preseason exhibition race,

NASCAR returns to its roots Sunday with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, which last played host to a Cup Series event more than 50 years ago. After three years on a temporary short track at the Los Angeles Coliseum,