The NASCAR Cup Series season informally began with the Cook Out Clash exhibition race on Sunday at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the best of stock car racing was on display.

The preseason Clash at Bowman Gray is in the books, and while NASCAR does not have any points races on quarter-mile ovals, the Clash did give a peek into how teams could perform this year. Bowman Gray Stadium was still a short track,

If this was NASCAR of five years ago, Chase Elliott’s dominating victory in the preseason Clash would make him the favorite to win the Daytona 500