In case you haven’t seen the ads on the NFL playoffs on Fox, NASCAR is heading into unchartered waters this weekend.
NASCAR has been to California dozens of times before, but never like this. The exhibition Busch Clash will be contested on a quarter-mile track inside the famous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. There’s been a football game at a major NASCAR track (Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee a few years ago at Bristol), but never the other way around. Sure, there are racetracks around some high school stadiums down South, most notably Bowman Gray in North Carolina, but this is a site that has hosted two Olympics, countless football games and even a World Series.
Excited yet? Me neither.
This is a season of change in NASCAR, especially with the debut of the Next Gen car. It looks great and sporty (check out Brad Keselowski’s black, purple and yellow No. 6 Violet Defense car), but I will need a while to get used to the new placement of the car numbers farther toward the front of the car. And don’t get me started on the single-lug tires. What happened to “five on, five off”?
I’m also skeptical that the Coliseum track will be very racy with a full field of cars competing in the Clash for the first time. A quarter-mile track can make it hard for cars to pass without causing some sort of calamity. I don’t want to watch a bunch of wrecks, but I also don’t want to see “follow the leader.” It’s boring enough at New Hampshire.
To me, letting every team have a chance to make the field dilutes the appeal of the Clash. It was originally for pole winners from the previous year and past Clash winners. I’m happy I will be able to see Ryan Preece get a chance to qualify for the Clash in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing entry, but that’s about it.
And then there’s taking the Clash away from Daytona. What is Speedweeks without something to start it all off? It’s bad enough that last year they ran the Clash on the Daytona road course instead of the oval. Now NASCAR takes it away from the World Center of Racing altogether?
I just turned 43 and it feels good to be “old man yells at cloud.” Will I watch the Busch Clash now that I’ve said what I don’t like about it? If I’m home, I will. If I’m not, that’s what the DVR is for.
Go Brad, Go Ryan!
Jason Remillard is a copy editor and page designer at the Recorder. He can be reached at jremillard@recorder.com and followed on Twitter @racinwithjason