There are some things in NASCAR that don’t need to be reinvented. The Daytona 500. Restrictor-plate racing. Fans arguing about everything on the internet. And, as it turns out, the Clash belongs at Daytona.
After a five-year road trip that included a football stadium in Los Angeles and a historic bullring in North Carolina, NASCAR has finally done something that will make even its most cynical fans nod in approval. The sanctioning body announced Tuesday that the season-opening exhibition race is returning to Daytona International Speedway, where the newly named Wheatley Vodka Clash will officially kick off Speedweeks on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2027.
Sometimes the obvious answer really is the right one.
For years, NASCAR searched for ways to reinvent its annual preseason exhibition. The temporary quarter-mile inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was bold and different. Bowman Gray Stadium brought history, chaos and enough bent sheet metal to satisfy even the most demanding short-track fans. But neither venue ever truly felt like the beginning of a NASCAR season.
That feeling belongs in Daytona.
When engines fire for the Clash beneath the lights at the World Center of Racing, fans know what comes next. Daytona 500 qualifying. The Duel races. Trucks. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. ARCA. Then, finally, the Great American Race itself. It’s a week-long celebration that doesn’t need artificial hype because it has spent nearly seven decades creating its own.
The Clash was a Daytona tradition from 1979 through 2020 before moving to the Daytona road course during the pandemic-affected 2021 season. After that came the three-year experiment inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum followed by two years at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Now it comes home.
The event’s new title sponsor arrives with it as NASCAR announced a new multi-year partnership naming Wheatley American Vodka the Official Vodka of NASCAR while also taking entitlement rights to the Clash.
“The pairing of a fan-favorite event like The Clash with a premier vodka brand in Wheatley American Vodka is the perfect way to welcome home one of NASCAR’s most beloved traditions,” Daytona International Speedway President Frank Kelleher said.
The format and eligibility requirements for the 2027 Clash will be announced at a later date, leaving plenty of room for speculation about exactly who gets invited to the party. Historically, the race has evolved from an exclusive event featuring only pole winners into a made-for-TV exhibition with changing qualification rules that seem to get rewritten almost as often as NASCAR’s playoff format.
What won’t change is the setting.
The Clash debuted in 1979 as a 20-lap sprint featuring just nine drivers, with Buddy Baker becoming the inaugural winner. Over the decades it grew into one of NASCAR’s signature traditions, producing memorable moments and giving fans their first real glimpse of each new Cup Series season before points were on the line.
Its most recent chapter has been considerably more unconventional.
The Los Angeles Coliseum experiment gave NASCAR a chance to put stock cars in front of a new audience, while Bowman Gray delivered old-school short-track mayhem. The 2026 edition even required more patience than horsepower after heavy snowfall postponed the race twice, eventually allowing Ryan Preece to claim the victory three days later than originally scheduled.
Interesting? Absolutely.
Traditional? Not exactly.
Returning to Daytona also restores the natural rhythm of Speedweeks, where every major event builds toward the Daytona 500 rather than feeling like a separate show staged hundreds of miles away.
The remainder of the 2027 Daytona schedule follows that familiar script. Cup qualifying takes place Wednesday, Feb. 17, followed by the Duel races on Thursday. The Craftsman Truck Series races Friday before Saturday features both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series. The week concludes Sunday, Feb. 21, with the 69th running of the Daytona 500.
NASCAR has never been shy about trying new ideas. Some work brilliantly. Others quietly disappear into history after everyone politely agrees never to mention them again.
The Clash’s tour through Los Angeles and Bowman Gray certainly produced memorable moments, but bringing NASCAR’s preseason opener back to Daytona feels less like another experiment and more like common sense finally winning the race.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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