NASCAR’s Clash at the Coliseum is a fun promo, and that’s OK

The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, which will see the green flag for its third edition this weekend in Los Angeles, is a lot of things.

It’s fun. It’s loose. It’s cool. It will be fast, and it will be loud. Judging by the one-page, four-box flowchart graphic that NASCAR sent out to explain the two-day, three-group/three-session practice/qualifying, four-heat-race, plus last-chance qualifier, plus final 23-car, 150-lap format, it will also be a bit complicated.

I am excited about the Busch Light Clash this weekend. I think it’s a fun event. But when I try to read this format graphic it also quickly falls into the same “Dude, my brain hurts, just explain it to me right before the green flag” category of the NASCAR All-Star Race. pic.twitter.com/ZgHnSmgnMq

— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) January 29, 2024

Above all else, though, what the Clash really is, is a commercial.

The stars and cars of stock car racing dueling on a quarter-mile asphalt oval crammed into the stadium where the USC Trojans play football, a front stretch’s distance from downtown L.A. and a hot lap away from Hollywood. There are no points on the line and no immortality to be earned. All of that will be on the docket when the Cup Series reconvenes for the Daytona 500 two weekends later.

All of this in Los Angeles — the race, the trophy, the red carpet event leading up to the green flag, NASCAR’s super-secret electric race car that’s expected to run some hot laps, even the mariachi bands and the mid-race performance by Machine Gun Kelly — are gearing us up for the actual start of NASCAR’s 76th season at the Great American Race.

Let’s call this the Great American Showcase.

“It’s fun more than anything else, but it is also a way to get your head right and your team right before we go to Daytona,” says Martin Truex Jr., who won the Clash one year ago. “There is a lot of rust being shaken off. First real laps of the year, first time with new stuff on cars and in new cars, and for a lot of teams, it’s drivers and guys on crews working together for the first time. So, yes, it is fun but it is also important. Best to start working out that stuff now, identifying potential issues now than having…