What Happened
Denny Hamlin took the lead with 11 laps remaining, and he won the third running of the Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Memorial Colisseum on Feb. 3. Hamlin started the day on the pole looked strong out front in the first third of the race. After dropping back a few spots, Hamlin found his way back to the front in the closing laps after Ty Gibbs ran Joey Logano up the track and opened the door on the inside lane during a late restart.
Hamlin then held off Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney in a two-lap shootout to seal the victory.
The this is Hamlin’s fourth Clash win and the the second straight win at the LA Coliseum for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.
What Really Happened
Before the green flag even flew Saturday night, a whirlwind of stories surrounded the 2024 installment of the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. The threat of rain – more like the threat of an oncoming monsoon – was projected to ramp up beginning Sunday, Feb. 4. With a dire forecast and days of projected rain, NASCAR announced earlier in the afternoon that they would run the event Saturday night instead.
To make this happen, the entire weekend schedule went out the window.
NASCAR nixed the heats and instead would set the lineup by fastest speeds in the final practice session. The race went off without a hitch, and many drivers applauded NASCAR for their decision to move the race up a full day.
Just like all major NASCAR decisions, mixed reactions from the fans surrounded the event both before and after its rescheduling.
For starters, NASCAR’s first announcement of the format included the information that the heat races and last-chance qualifiers would be run on Saturday, closed off to the fans. After major blowback, NASCAR opened up the gates, free to all. To their credit, NASCAR kept the event free on Saturday after making the last-minute decision to move the event.
Going into the weekend, NASCAR faced a lose-lose situation. Nobody wanted to sit around for days on in waiting for a window…
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