Joey Logano won the NASCAR Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Sunday after pulling off a nicely executed bump-and-run on race leader Kyle Busch.
The race, which served as the competitive debut for the new NASCAR Next Gen cars, saw Busch start from pole position after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver won Heat 1 in the grid-setting qualifying races on Saturday, leading from Tyler Reddick in the No. 8 Chevy Camaro ZL1. Logano, meanwhile, started in the second row after qualifying fourth, just behind the No. 31 Chevy Camaro of Justin Haley.
The top four remained out front after the green flag came out, with Reddick working his way past Busch to lead the opening laps and Haley managing to keep Logano behind him. The first yellow of the day out on lap 54 for the spun No. 47 Chevy of Ricky Stenhouse, which was followed by another caution shortly after on Lap 66 for the spun No. 9 Chevy of Chase Elliott. Busch led the field to green when racing got back underway, with Logano bumping the No. 18 Toyota Camry out of the way on Lap 75 to take the lead.
Logano and Busch continued their battle, with the two trading places for roughly 40 laps before the caution came out once again on Lap 115 for the damaged car of Haley, who was taken out by the No. 5 of Kyle Larson in retaliation for contact in the previous corner. The No. 22 Ford Mustang passed Busch on the restart and held the lead for the remaining laps, winning NASCAR’s first-ever visit to the LA Coliseum and giving his Team Penske squad some much-needed momentum heading into the 2022 Daytona 500.
“I can’t believe it,” Logano said post-race. “We’re here. The LA Coliseum. We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event. Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody.”
Full highlights from the NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum can be viewed in the video embedded below. NASCAR heads to Daytona next for the 64th annual running of the Daytona 500 on February 20th.
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Comments
Great job Nascar! Congrats to Joey and the Penske Team.
Race? This was no more than 2/3rd scale bodied go-karts circling that “track”. This is how NASCAR is attempting to win back fans????
Look up the Bristol track in VA, most of the races in there is under 100mph..
They are not trying to win us back. They want to replace the traditional fan with the new mix of fans hence rap and sombreros.
That is fine but never alienate the base.
I punched out a long time ago when they started the Chase BS. When Kyle Bush win a Championship driving half the year I was done.
Next year, how’z about a Figger 8, NASCAR?
Exactly!
This was not a race but a novelty act and side show.
NASCAR has time and time again tried to break the LA market but they fail ever time. If they repeat this next year they will draw about half they did this year.
Save this for the All Star Race and do it at Bowman Grey and let the teams build NASCAR Modifeds to run.
The farther that NASCAR goes the more they are becoming the racing version of the WWF.
I can also see the new cars will have issues. The trans axles are breaking if you shift and the rear suspension will not take a bounce off the wall like the old 9″ would.
NASCAR just needs to be back to the basics like they did back in the 80’s,
The next issue is the future with BEV. How will they get MFGs to spend money on that and still present a race?
NASCAR moved away from most short tracks over the years. Made too many cookie cutter 1.5 milers. Reminds me of MLB and all those fake turf stadiums of the 70s-80s. All the same. NASCAR forgot it’s roots. New cars look better, however.
Bunch of assclowns!
I agree that the IRS, will be this “New” cars death nell. It’s OK to try and make changes, but this is RACIN’ not a day on the expressway. Make the cars look real, but keep the running gear under them, able to hold up to the riggers of racing. I see it, as NASCAR, has a way to go on the new version. The race at LA, was anything but enjoyable. Lets see if they make some changes soon!
Do you think EVERY race car in the world has a Solid Axle setup? Aside from NHRA, NASCAR was one of the last holdouts.