NASCAR kicking off season in unique way with Clash at Coliseum
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
LOS ANGELES – It took 9,200 cubic yards of fill and aggregate on top of 130,000 square feet of plastic sheets and plywood.
Then 6,900 cubic yards of asphalt.
Plus 3,840 feet of temporary track walls and 1,400 feet of SAFER Barrier and another 1,400 feet of catchfence.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is ready. Or at least, NASCAR thinks so.
The thing is, no one really knows what will happen Sunday in the Busch Light Clash staged on the temporary, quarter-mile, 2.5-degree-banked, asphalt oval NASCAR constructed inside one of the nation’s most iconic sports venues.
Exclusive: Timelapse of the Clash at the Coliseum
"The last time I was on a quarter-mile, I was driving a [smaller] Legends car, and I was 9, so I think this is going to be pretty different," said 31-year-old Joey Logano, the 2018 Cup champion.
"It’s a full-sized car out there. I don’t know what we’re going to have for room, but it’ll be interesting, and we’ll learn. Either way, we’re going to know whether we want to do this again or not."
NASCAR has poured millions of dollars into this event, which was previously staged at Daytona to whet the appetite for the Daytona 500. In trying to engage new fans and think outside the box, NASCAR will try to do something it has never done before.
Will the track hold up? Will the new Next Gen cars perform well? Can Cup drivers put on a show when maximum speed is around 80 mph?
Drivers will begin to find out Saturday in practice and single-car qualifying runs. On Sunday, they will start racing at 3 p.m. ET in heat events, followed by a 150-lap main event at 6 p.m. ET.
Between the heats and the main event, Pitbull — who co-owns a NASCAR team — will perform a 45-minute concert. At the halfway break following Lap 75, Ice Cube will take the stage for eight minutes. During any caution laps, which won’t count in this race, DJ Skee will entertain the crowd.
Behind-the-scenes of the L.A. Coliseum hosting its first NASCAR race
If it thrills the crowd and generates ratings, NASCAR will either come back to the Coliseum again next year or go somewhere else. No idea seems off the table.
"We'll all sit down as a group, talk about what went well, what we could possibly tweak," NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell said. "And then [decide] if we want to go ahead and continue there for an additional year, or are there other areas we may want to explore ... domestic or even outside of the U.S. as well."
NASCAR originally hoped to do this race at Soldier Field, where it had races in 1956 and 1957. But the size of the field did not lend itself to constructing the track.
"It would be probably next to impossible to race there," O’Donnell said. "So we kicked around ideas around the parking lot or different areas in Chicago. And that ultimately led us to just exploring where, if any, facilities could we race at that were different that weren't racetracks."
NASCAR went looking and realized the L.A. Coliseum met all its criteria.
Asked about the cost, O’Donnell said, "I would say it’s significantly more than" earlier estimates of $1 million.
"I think when you look at investments, particularly from our standpoint, we're going to be bold and aggressive if we feel like that's a way toward future growth, so I would not rule it out as something we might not do every year," O’Donnell said.
"But [we] wouldn’t want to say definitively until we get through this and see where we're at."
'It's changing the game!' - Joey Logano on the Clash at the Coliseum
In late December, workers began putting sheets of plastic and plywood over the field at the Coliseum. They then put down layers of dirt followed by 4 inches of asphalt.
The track, at a quarter-mile, is less than half the size of the smallest track at which NASCAR drivers normally compete (Martinsville at 0.526 miles). This matters because Cup cars are typically heavier (by about 400-500 pounds, at 3,400 pounds) than cars that would normally race at a track this size.
But many drivers cut their teeth at tracks a half-mile and smaller, and NASCAR hopes that will help bring the event back to the roots. NASCAR has generated excitement with this move, as well as some frustration from fans who would prefer a more traditional racing venue.
Corey LaJoie explores where NASCAR could go next | NASCAR on FOX
NASCAR expects a capacity crowd of around 50,000 (several rows near the track surface are covered for safety reasons) and says 70% of those who have bought tickets are new to its ticket database.
"I’m not sure I’ve raced a stock car on a track this small, and obviously, we’ve never raced the Next Gen car, so it’s going to be interesting," former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. said.
"The cool thing is it’s going to be a lot of fun to do something fun, and there is a lot of excitement around it as well. I think everybody is anxious to get out there — get on track — and see what we can do, and hopefully it turns into a fun event."
NASCAR has a partnership with simulator-racing company iRacing, which created model tracks inside the Coliseum and had drivers do mock races to determine what might make the best configuration.
"They came to me back in, I think, August/September to ask me about the track and what I thought, so I got a chance to run a few laps on it and kind of get a feel for it," Hendrick driver William Byron said. "Definitely a cool track, and [I] feel like it’s got a lot of potential."
'NASCAR Race Hub' crew lists favorites to win Clash at the Coliseum | NASCAR on FOX
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Thinking out loud
NASCAR made a good rule change for this year, as it will treat the start of a race just like any other restart: The second-place car can beat the leader to the start line as long as there is no jumping of the start when the green flag drops.
Too many times, drivers were penalized when the pole-sitter had a poor restart. NASCAR thought the pole-sitter should lead the field across the starting line, but it was right to take this judgment call and toss it into the garbage. All the rule did was cause controversy, and arguing over one spot seemed kind of fruitless, especially when the penalty was having to do a pass-through, which would put the car at the rear of the field.
Of course, with every new season, it's time to get a little greedy about rules changes, so how about adding local yellow flags on road courses? That would help those races and is a judgment call — a driver wouldn’t be allowed to pass in the local yellow area — worth making to keep the rest of the course under green.
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They said it
"I love fast cars and I love to compete." — New NASCAR team co-owner Floyd Mayweather
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
