LOS ANGELES — Martin Truex Jr. won NASCAR’s return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the season-opening exhibition race — a sloppy Sunday night extravaganza where Wiz Khalifa’s halftime show might have been the most entertaining part of the event.
Truex took the lead with 25 laps to go in the Busch Light Clash, a 150-lap race that was moved from Daytona International Speedway to the Coliseum last year. NASCAR built a temporary quarter-mile track inside the iconic venue in a bold attempt to try something radically different.
Truex, who was contemplating retirement in last year’s winless season, won for the first time since September 11, 2021.
“Last year was a pretty tough season for us with no wins and to come out here and start it like that makes me really proud of all these guys,” Truex said.
Last year’s race was seen as an overwhelming success due to the new fans drawn to the event and excitement at the progressive approach to creating a brand new type of race.
NASCAR knew it would be difficult to repeat that success on its return, and Sunday’s race wasn’t great – there were 25 cautions and laps under yellow didn’t count. In last year’s race there were only five warnings.
“Last year’s show I thought was relatively clean and good racing, some shots, some shots, but we were able to go green flag long stretches,” said Kyle Busch. “Today was, I would call it a disaster, with everyone’s disrespect just getting mixed up.
“But it’s a quarter mile. It’s a close race. Actually, that’s how it should have gone last year, so we were treated to a good show in the first year. Maybe that was just normal.”
Truex put Joe Gibbs Racing on the winning track to start 2023 after a terrible end to last year. Coy Gibbs, who essentially ran his father’s racing team, died in his sleep the night before the November season finale. Coy Gibbs’ death came just hours after his son Ty won the NASCAR championship of the second-tier Xfinity series.
Austin Dillon and Busch finished second and third for RCR on his debut for Richard Childress Racing. They joined Truex on a podium for a NASCAR inaugural medal ceremony held beneath the Colosseum’s famous peristyle.
Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished fourth and fifth for Hendrick Motorsports and Tyler Reddick was sixth on his debut for 23XI.
“It’s tough when you need 45 minutes to do six laps,” Bowman said of the chaotic race. “It was pretty bad when we just crashed and crashed and crashed.”
Ryan Preece was leading 43 laps in his debut race for Stewart-Haas Racing until a late electrical issue sidelined him. Before Sunday evening, Preece had led a total of 25 laps in 115 cup races in five seasons. Preece was seventh.
Bubba Wallace was dominant early on for 23XI but was shot late by Dillon and then slammed into Dillon to show his displeasure. He finished 22nd after leading 40 laps.
“I hate it for Bubba, he had a good car and a good run,” Dillon said. “But you can’t tell who’s pushing him or who’s being pushed. All I know is that he sent me through the corner and I saved it there three times, released the brake and everything and then when I was down I wanted to do the same. It was probably a bit too hard.”
LCQs
The format of the Exhibition Clash included heat races and two ‘Last Chance Qualifiers’ over 50 laps to help the drivers reach the field of 27 cars. Three drivers from each of the LCQs advanced: Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Todd Gilliland advanced from the first race, and Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger advanced from the second.
Those unable to compete in the main event were Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher, The Wood Brothers’ Harrison Burton, Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie and Ty Dillon, and Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware and JJ Yeley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr .of JTG Racing and BJ McLeod of Live Fast Motorsports.
JOHNSON SCHEDULE
Jimmie Johnson returned to NASCAR Sunday as a team co-owner of Legacy Motor Club, which fields two cars for Erik Jones and Noah Gragson. The seven-time NASCAR Champion has spent the last two years racing IndyCar and will be racing a limited schedule this season that includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Johnson was inducted into the Daytona 500 later this month, then said Sunday he will also compete in NASCAR’s first-ever street course race, scheduled in July in downtown Chicago.
NEXT
The Cup Series opens Daytona International Speedway a week from Wednesday to begin preparations for the season-opening Daytona 500 on February 19.
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