From the time it opened in 1923, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had served as the site of national championship games, Super Bowls, and the Olympics among any other events. But prior to this weekend, it had never seen anything quite like the NASCAR Cup Series, which ended up putting on a show that the century-old sports landmark won't soon forget.
In the first-ever NASCAR race at the L.A. Coliseum, Joey Logano was able to take the lead from Kyle Busch and pull away to win the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum to open the 2022 season. Logano's victory was the second of his career in the Clash, a preseason exhibition event that has traditionally served as a prelude to the new season and the Daytona 500.
Logano's victory was the very first on the quarter-mile oval purpose-built within the L.A. Coliseum, and the Clash also marked the very first race for the NASCAR Next Gen car.
Clash at the Coliseum unofficial results
1. #22 - Joey Logano
2. #18 - Kyle Busch
3. #3 - Austin Dillon
4. #43 - Erik Jones
5. #5 - Kyle Larson
6. #24 - William Byron
7. #41 - Cole Custer
8. #20 - Christopher Bell
9. #16 - AJ Allmendinger
10. #4 - Kevin Harvick
After only visiting Victory Lane once in 2021, Logano had a little extra incentive to open 2022 in the Winner's Circle. He and his wife are imminently anticipating the birth of their third child.
"This is an amazing event. Congratulations to NASCAR -- It's such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody," Logano told Fox Sports. "... My wife's having a baby tomorrow. Our third one. So pretty big weekend for us."
Sunday's activities began with four heat races and two last chance qualifiers to set the 23-car field for the Clash, which featured everyone from past Cup champions like Logano, Busch, and defending champ Kyle Larson to longshots like Ryan Preece and rookie Harrison Burton. The Coliseum quarter-mile made for extremely close confines, and the race was marked by more than its fair share of high-contact short track action.
There were some hurt feelings as a result. Ryan Blaney was so incensed by contact with Erik Jones that caused a mechanical failure on Blaney's car that he ended up chucking his HANS device at Jones from the infield and onto the racing surface. Justin Haley was also unhappy with Kyle Larson after Larson retaliated against Haley for making contact with him, sending Haley into the wall and out of the race.
"He just wants to destroy me for seventh. Don't really make no sense," Blaney said. "Run into the back of you and killed our car. Yeah, I was mad. But you'll have that."
Outside of the incidents involving Blaney and Haley, much of the attrition throughout the race was mechanical, as certain technical gremlins with the Next Gen car popped up and ensnared contenders. Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe went from contending to seeing their days end early, and Tyler Reddick went from leading the race to suddenly dropping out under caution.
As an exhibition event, the Clash is a non-points race that does not count towards the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship. NASCAR will now take a one-week break -- allowing the Super Bowl to take center stage in Los Angeles -- before the beginning of Speedweeks and the 64th running of the Daytona 500.