What Happened?
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Martin Truex Jr. stayed in the hunt long enough to start 2023 with a bang by securing a win in the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, Feb. 5. He was followed by Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson as they rounded out the top five.
Truex’s win on the quarter-mile stadium track marks his first in any NASCAR Cup Series event since his win at Richmond Raceway in 2021.
But What Really Happened?
Some good quality nighttime short track exhibition racing fun.
For the first 75 laps, there were only four cautions that slowed the field within the quarter-mile stadium. All in all, that’s not that bad, especially at a short track race.
But after Wiz Khalifa performed during the race’s halftime show, something new seemed to be in the air that hindered driving ability.
Caution after caution. Spin after spin. The field would bunch up again and again, making no progress in the race’s distance since caution flag laps weren’t counted.
It didn’t end until lap 143, and with a mad dash taking place over eight laps, the Clash finally ended with many drivers upset with one another after multiple spins that saw a total of 16 caution flags waved.
But as an exhibition race with no points rewarded in the entertainment capital of the world, all of that is just fine.
The new (and improved) Busch Light Clash was mostly made to bring an entertaining product into a new market featuring a weird track with an interesting venue in an interesting location.
And let’s face it. It’s working.
But for once, let’s just keep it the way it is and not try to fix what isn’t broken by making it into a points race.
With the announcement that Auto Club Speedway – the season’s only other southern California track – will not be featured on the Cup Series schedule next year because of its reconfiguration, many are clamoring to find another venue that will replace it as the series’ points race in SoCal.
Naturally, all eyes darted to the Coliseum.
The thing is, the Clash, or at least the…
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