As ‘wacky’ Clash ends and Daytona prep begins, NASCAR can start anew. It needs to
Ryan Blaney called it “wacky.”
William Byron considered it “a marathon.”
And Ryan Preece — the winner of the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem that saw drivers, pit crews and fans endure sleet delays and slick asphalt and a Clash-record 17 cautions — struggled to find the right words.
“It’s been a (expletive) long road,” Preece told the FOX broadcast postrace.
Preece said that about his career, one that has seen crests and troughs up until capturing the checkered flag.
But the same could be true about all of Wednesday.
And really, all of this past NASCAR offseason.
The merciful conclusion of Wednesday’s chaos-cluttered Clash was an unfortunate but fitting end to the NASCAR Cup Series offseason — one that saw a divisive trial and two highly publicized tragedies, among other difficulties. Preparations for the Daytona 500, which begin next week, thus represent a meaningfully fresh start for the sport.
No one can speak more profoundly on the craziness and sadness that were the winter months — normally a time of calm, when key NASCAR players go into hibernation — than Cup star Denny Hamlin.
Consider Hamlin’s November. The 45-year-old driver of the No. 11 car was in the Championship 4 with the lead with two laps to go before a caution foiled his chances at his first Cup championship.
Consider his December, one that saw a lot of time in a Charlotte courtroom, where he and his team at 23XI Racing were in litigation with NASCAR. Consider his January, when he tore a muscle in his right shoulder — aggravating an injury he suffered at the end of 2023.
Consider the most heartbreaking part of his winter, too: one that saw a fire consume the home his mother and his father were in. His mother, Mary Lou, suffered fire burns; his father, Dennis, died at the scene.
It all put Hamlin exhausted come 2026 Clash time, in a different frame of mind than usual, he said Wednesday.
“It certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means, and I’m sure I’m probably in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip-roaring, ready to go racing the last month or so,” Hamlin said. “I’m probably in a different spot than that. I would certainly appreciate a few more months, but I don’t have that.”
He added: “A lot of people go through tragedies. I mean, I can’t tell you — while what happened with my family in the offseason was highly publicized, there are probably tons of those stories of crew members that happen in their family this offseason, that happens to them during the season that no one really knows about. So everyone has their times when they have to go through tough moments. And I think that those are really kind of building moments of your character. It’s how you respond to it.”
You could feel the weight of the offseason at the beginning of the race. The emotional burnout of it. Greg Biffle, who along with six others died in a plane crash in Statesville in December, was honored pre-race with a moment of silence. Bowman Gray Stadium had an emblem of Biffle painted onto the grass with his iconic No. 16.
But the Clash, in an imperfect way, gave race fans a reprieve. It gave them a chance to laugh at Preece’s curse-laden radio rants; the chance to shake their fists at NASCAR for the sanctioning body’s various decisions during the weather-complicated race; the chance to lose themselves in budding rivalries like Daniel Suarez-vs.-Shane van Gisbergen.
“It’s just nice to get back in the car,” Blaney said. “Like, I haven’t been in a race car since Phoenix. I didn’t have any tests or anything this winter. It was just nice to get back in the swing of things. ... Nothing is better than working with them at the racetrack, kind of getting that camaraderie back, the communication side down, just getting back to what you’re used to.”
Wednesday was all about looking forward, rediscovering comfort — not forgetting the offseason but beginning anew nonetheless. That was most illuminating when RFK Racing president Chip Bowers was asked what it was like to see an RFK Racing car back in Victory Lane in the first race after Biffle’s death. Biffle, of course, was given his first chance in NASCAR by Jack Roush, one of the principal owners of what RFK Racing is today.
“We do it with heavy hearts,” Bowers said of the meaning of winning the first race after Biffle’s death.
Bowers added: “Ryan and (crew chief) Derrick (Finley) have both touched on this — we’re an extremely proud organization. This organization was built on the backs of Jack Roush, his commitment to the sport, his commitment to the drivers and the people in our organization.
“We’ve had a lot of success. It’s time we get back to that.”
In Daytona, they’ll try to find their old ways, their old grooves, without forgetting the difficulties of their offseason.
Just like the rest of NASCAR.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "As ‘wacky’ Clash ends and Daytona prep begins, NASCAR can start anew. It needs to."
