NASCAR announced Wednesday that the option tire will return to the NASCAR Cup Series for the spring weekend at Phoenix Raceway. It will be the same process that was utilized for the summer race at Richmond Raceway last year where each Cup Series team was given six primary sets of tires for the race and

Bowman Gray, meanwhile, a more traditional, quarter-mile short track that was host to Cup Series races from 1958-1971, will serve as the host of this year's Clash, which was held in the Los Angeles Coliseum to start each of the past three seasons.

Twenty-three cars will race 200 green-flag laps to claim the Cook Out Clash title Feb 2 at Bowman Gray Stadium, NASCAR revealed Tuesday. The 23-car field is the same number of cars that ran in the feature of last year's Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum.