What Happened
Denny Hamlin took the lead with 11 laps remaining, and he won the third running of the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 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 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 Clash. 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 it 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 its decision to move the race up a 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 its 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 in the weather. Moving the event, however, takes away from months of buildup and excitement of a Sunday evening race. Looking forward, NASCAR also faces a lose-lose scenario with the Clash.
In an era when NASCAR seems set on reducing costs for teams, much conversation has revolved around the cost for teams to travel to the West Coast for an exhibition event. Especially one where a number of teams only saw the track for three short practice sessions.
The atmosphere of the inaugural Clash at the Coliseum made the event an instant sensation. Year two seemingly lacked the same buzz, and the third rendition never had a fair shake to begin with.
The Clash certainly has a future, as the new TV contracts have deemed, but the venue for the race remains in the air.
Some fans want the Clash to return to its traditional location in Daytona. Some rumors place a future event in Mexico. A few fans have even suggested NASCAR end the Clash event altogether.
Whatever the opinion, the Clash serves up a taste of racing action just large enough to quench the thirst for NASCAR fans waiting for the offseason to end while also hoping to drum up excitement for the Daytona 500.
NASCAR caught lightning in a bottle at the Clash event in 2022. The years since haven’t had that level of enthusiasm. However, the ability to hold a NASCAR race in a stadium presents a plethora of opportunities for NASCAR to enter new or unique venues and markets within the United States.
The challenge for NASCAR lies within trying to make the Clash into a major event just a few weeks ahead of its crown jewel race. Unfortunately, NASCAR seems to face an unfavorable scenario in all directions it looks.
Rotating the location of the Clash – even moving it to Mexico – does not help teams with any cost-saving measures, especially if the event continues to be mandatory instead of celebrating the accomplished teams from the previous year. On the flip side, returning to Daytona, or any other traditional racetrack, will not earn new eyeballs and new views from an atypical audience.
The Clash is already part of the next TV deal, so it is here to stay. Looking to the future, the beating and banging on a quarter-mile inside a football stadium feels more like a clash between drivers compared to chugging around single file for 75 laps.
Regardless of NASCAR’s decision on what to do with the Clash, fans will certainly have clashing opinions.
Who Stood Out
Ty Gibbs showed major improvements in the last handful of races in the 2023 season, running very well at Martinsville Speedway until being taken out by Logano. That speed, as well as issues with Logano, carried over into the exhibition.
For most of the race, Gibbs looked dominant, driving out to a two-second lead at one point. A late caution thwarted Gibbs’ easy path to victory, and his concern with Logano definitely caused him to overthink and overdrive the restart, handing the lead to Hamlin.
He may certainly be one to watch this season.
Many felt Justin Haley had a backward move in the works when he announced his plans to link up with Rick Ware Racing. But in his first event with RWR, Haley qualified inside the top 10 and stayed there solidly until he had to park the car late in the race.
RWR had success with Ryan Preece in the 2022 Clash, and Haley’s performance definitely turned some heads before the 2024 season officially begins at Daytona International Speedway.
Who Fell Flat
Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher surprised in the second half of last season, with Buescher winning three races and Bell making the Championship 4.
Both fell flat during their Clash qualifying sessions, as they failed to make it out of the top 30, missing the main event.
While RFK has found trouble each year at the Coliseum, the miss stung for Bell as his other three teammates looked strong, especially at the end of the race.
Better Than Last Time
The event overall had the most lackluster crowd of the three years, and the big mid-race show didn’t occur as planned. However, the racing itself was much better than in 2023. Yes, bumper cars did come into play at times, and yes, the cautions seemed to last forever. Despite a late-race restart, this year’s event did not devolve into a crashfest and found a decent balance between physical, hard and clean racing.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Some drivers debuted one of their 2024 primary schemes, other drivers may have had a more unique scheme. Of the primaries, Ally has once again created a fantastic scheme for Alex Bowman to run in 2024. As the one partner that rarely changes up its scheme throughout the year, this scheme will be enjoyable to look at week after week.
In past seasons, Columbia has clothed the No. 23 with multiple outfits throughout the season, and they will likely do the same in 2024. The 23XI team continued its run of banger schemes to start the season with this beauty for Bubba Wallace.
What’s Next?
One week from now, the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl. The following week, NASCAR’s 2024 season will begin with its own Super Bowl in the Daytona 500.
The Great American Race begins Sunday, February 18 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
How about having the Clash at The Rock? Save a lot or time and gas money, plus have a great venue for it. Think of all the fans that can travel down and spend time touring the race shops in the area.
Clearly this event needs a change again Most teams attend the New Smyrna Speed Weeks in some form Chase Elliott is entered Its location is just outside Daytona Its a purpose built short track and would be cost effective for teams
It’s time to get the Clash out of LA. Looking at the posts on X, I think there were more people going to the Coliseum to see Machine Gun Kelly than the Clash.
At least the price was finally right!
No mentions of the great Mexico Series race following the Clash? Made me wish they actually aired those in the US.
It’s obvious that the novelty of the Coliseum has worn off. The racing itself isn’t all that great but it was cool that first year.
I think the trick is to move it around to a venue that isn’t on the main schedule. A different one every year. It’s a silly race but it is the first (unofficial) one of the season so people will be willing to watch it just for the novelty.
I had to laugh at the cluster that was Saturday night.Teams that traveled out there that didn’t get a fair chance to make the field. Switching to Saturday night after having it closed to fans. Switching from the network FOX channel to the cable FS1 channel. The whole thing just was a comedy of errors. They had to lose a boat load of revenue with those moves.
How many people didn’t even hear about the change to know to turn on the TV Saturday night?
How many viewers and advertising dollars did they lose going from network to cable?
How many people that had tickets for Sunday night could have adjusted their plans to switch to Saturday night when it was announced less than 5 hours before the green flag?
The networks don’t seem to mind losing money. Look at the TV money they gave Nascar, ridiculous with the ratings they are getting. Nascar says it’s Denny’s year. Crap started early. Lot more drivers willing to pull a Logano on Denny now.
I phoned my brother to tell him was event was on. He didn’t know and expected to watch on Sunday.