On Sunday night, NASCAR had its second-ever race inside the Los Angeles Coliseum. The spectacle was awesome; the racing was another story. The 150-lap Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum main event had 16 cautions, with many taking place right after a caution. And since caution flags didn’t count in the exhibition race, the last half of the race dragged on forever.
Many drivers didn’t hide the fact that the race more resembled bumper cars than NASCAR racing, and Denny Hamlin chimed in with his thoughts on his brand new podcast, Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin experienced the race from the front and the back after getting spun out, and while he said racing in the back at the Coliseum was “the worst racing,” he had an idea to improve the Clash, which might sound familiar to longtime NASCAR fans.
Hamlin’s suggestion is to go back to the roots of the Busch Clash and only invite pole winners from the previous season.
“I think you would have better racing at that track. Keep it the Clash, and stop inviting everyone to the party. Like, if you win a pole, like you used to, you get to participate in the Clash. If you don’t, you don’t show up.
“Like I guarantee you, so who had the worst weekend was RFK. They showed up again, didn’t make the race again. I don’t know what they made, maybe a couple bucks, and they spent a lot of time and effort out there.
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“The field, it used to be in the Clash, 15-18 cars. I think that, it’s so logjammed up from midpack back because, the field, the accordioning happens way in the front. And then by the time it gets to the back, it’s just awful.
“So I think the fewer the cars, I mean we saw it in the heat races, the last chance qualifier. We didn’t have all this crazy, we had 10 cars in each. So, if you can spread us out, it might not provide the boxing type of entertainment, but I don’t know.”
This honestly is the way to go, and based on last year, a total of 16 drivers would’ve qualified for this year’s race. Hamlin is right, the heats and LCQ’s had better racing because people had room and the racing could breathe. There were still some spins, but they weren’t every lap.
The only drawback is that if less than half the field is in the race, chances are that fans might not show up if they know their favorite driver isn’t competing. One idea to help with that, is the full-time drivers not participating in the race are up in the stands signing autographs and taking pics with fans throughout the race. If 40% of the crowd has never been to a NASCAR race, that’s a win-win for everyone if those fans get a race and get the chance to meet some drivers. Then if, worst case scenario, the race becomes a stinker, the fans could say they at least got to meet some drivers and might give it another chance.
