Even though Sunday's Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray wasn't a points-paying event, the race gave us our first real glimpse into how new driver and team pairings will work out in 2025, as a result, the race has impacted the weekly NASCAR Power Rankings.

When NASCAR first announced that it was hauling its high-octane roadshow into the tight confines of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 2022, the sport’s purists reacted as if someone had suggested installing a Starbucks inside the Sistine Chapel. The rest of the world watched with morbid curiosity, waiting for the inevitable disaster.

I settled in on the couch with a glass of wine in one hand and the remote control in the other. I had a dilemma -- the NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was scheduled to start at the same time as the Grammys.