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,

The NASCAR Cup Series arrives to Bowman Gray for the first time in more than 50 years. But this race means more than just an exhibition.