On Sunday February 6th, 2022, NASCAR will present a season opening exhibition race at the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Busch Light Clash will be run for the first time on a 1/4 mile asphalt paved oval around the football field and will mark the first time a “Pre-Season” Clash will be run somewhere else besides at the Daytona International Speedway since the event was introduced with Anhauser-Busch starting in 1979.
This event will also mark the start of a new era in NASCAR with the introduction of the first event in competition for the “NEX GEN” Race Car at this non-points race where Olympics have been held previously in Los Angeles.
The festivities for the new event include a pre-race concert by Grammy Award winning artist Pit Bull on Sunday morning of the 6th February and with qualifying the day before with the NASCAR FAN FEST. This will also be the first time that NASCAR has opened it’s season at another facility outside of Daytona since 1981 when the opening kickoff event was held on the Road Course at Riverside International Raceway in Southern California.
It will be very interesting to see how the event is attended in So Cal. The Coliseum is huge with close to a 100,000 spectator capacity, so even if the draw is around 30 – 40,000 people, it could look somewhat small and Fox will use their low and strategic placed cameras etc. And I don’t think they will be painting all the seats different colors to create the illusion of more fans in the stands. We certainly hope the event is well attended and is very successful on a number of levels for NASCAR, Race Fans and the event organizers.
Until next time……”GO FAST…….Then Turn Left and Hang On”!..
Stewart Haas Illustration of their new #14 “NEX GEN” Ford Mustang
Track preparation starting a few months back in Los Angeles
Last years car 2021 Busch Light sponsored #4 Ford Mustang from Stewart-Haas Racing with driver Kevin Harvick
Did watch a good portion of the race yesterday and thought that it was a good show down there in LA….Had a LOT bigger crowd than I thought they would get, which is great for NASCAR…..Also not as many “Incidents” as thought they would have at the Saturday Night Special Short Track event and the new cars look fantastic…….Happy a Mustang Won!
Will be interesting to see if this “Exhibition” Race ends up being the BUSCH LIGHT “CRASH” given how tight this little quarter mile track will be and this the first event of season…….Usually not much of a short track fan but will watch this one to see what happens down in LA……