NASCAR took a big bet on a short track stadium race held in Southern California; it rolled out the red carpet for celebrities and stars alike to welcome in it's new Next Gen era. Was it a success? Certainly in some respects, but let's take a look at what did and didn't work...
Joey Logano took the checkered flag and won NASCAR's exhibition event in LA.
Before we analyze the whole event and look at the good, the bad, and the ugly, here's a brief summary of how the main event went down:
The two-part race went surprisingly without much controversy, at least when it came down to the wire, and was won by Joey Logano after a move on Kyle Busch got him ahead before a caution with about 30 laps remaining (it should be noted that we did not see this, the overall TV direction was pretty shocking throughout) and maintained enough of a lead to comfortably claim the win. The top ten were as follows:
Pos. | Start | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | Joey Logano | Team Penske |
2 | 1 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing |
3 | 10 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing |
4 | 16 | Erik Jones | Petty GMS |
5 | 8 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports |
6 | 7 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports |
7 | 14 | Cole Custer | Stewart-Haas Racing |
8 | 11 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing |
9 | 21 | AJ Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing |
10 | 19 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing |
The first part of the race was predominantly led by Tyler Reddick, until mechanical gremlins took him out of the race. Kyle Busch led the middle portion of the race, including at the break, for a performance from rapper Ice Cube. Behind the leaders, there was much jostling for position but not a ton of intense action, save for when Kyle Larson sideswiped Justin Haley out of third after Haley was punted into Larson by Larson's own teammate William Byron. Action wise, this was as intense as it got, although Ryan Blaney did throw his HANS device at Erik Jones after Jones appeared to damage Blaneys car in a bump-and-run. Blany later rejoined the race but was not a factor.
Now, on to the rest...
The Good
Media Exposure
Securing an entire afternoon slot on a major TV network is no mean feat, and NASCAR probably generated more interest from first-time or casual fans than it otherwise would if it had just staged the race at Daytona on a Saturday night a week or two before the Daytona 500. If you subscribe to the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity, then the race was a great success (even though it wasn't marred by bad publicity by any means) because it probably generated more media attention than anything NASCAR has done in a long time.
The novelty of the event surely generated some interest, as well as an array of celebrity tie-in and media events that took place throughout the weekend. In what could be described as "not NASCAR's primary demographic" a race in SoCal was NASCAR trying to show the world that it is at least trying to prove that it isn't just a sport for those of the grassroots of the Midwest or southeastern US.
Competitive Parity
One of the main claimed benefits of the new Next Gen race car is that is should provide a better competitive spread across the field, and close the gap from best to worst. With cars now being primarily built using spec parts or third-party suppliers, the equipment is more or less similar throughout the field. Of course, the larger and previously more successful teams will still have more resources and perhaps better talent than a smaller team, but the gap should be significantly closed. This appeared to be the case in LA.
We saw newcomers (sort of) Kaulig Racing show very well in their first full-time season, with Justin Haley running competitive in the top 5 and AJ Allmendinger flirting with the top 10 for most of the main event. Ryan Preece for minnows Rick Ware Racing made the final as well. Ty Dillon in the newly-formed Petty GMS squad appeared to have a very good car, and without some restart issues in the Last Chance Qualifiers, would've made the main event. Even still, his teammate Erik Jones finished a respectable 4th in the main event, providing a far more competitive outlook than in previous seasons for the No. 43 team.
The Bad
The Format
With a quarter-mile racetrack, NASCAR was always going to have to get creative with the event's structure, as the full field would not have been able to fit properly. However, the event seemed to be far too choppy from start to finish. Here's how they structured the event:
Saturday
Practice: Three groups of 12, each group with three sessions of 8 min each, for a total of 24 min per car
Qualifying: Single-car, 2-lap runs, in order of previous year's owner's points
Sunday
Four heat races: 25-laps (green flag laps only), top 4 from each heat advance to main
Two 'last chance qualifier' races: 50-laps (green flag laps only), top 3 from each LCQ advance to main
Pitbull Concert
Main: 150 laps (green flag laps only), split into two 75-lap segments, with an Ice Cube performance in between
What's the problem you ask? Well a lap of the track only takes about 14 seconds, so a 25-lap race could take, in theory, as little as six minutes. Of course only green flag laps count, but still that leaves very little time to actually make progress through the field without just ramming into the car in front of you to make a pass. Since only green flag laps count, you are realistically seeing only six or seven minutes of racing and the rest is spent under caution or setting up the track between races. Not great.
The spread out nature of the actual racing action, complicated by the nature of the track itself (more on that later) mean's that it's going to be difficult to entice a non-NASCAR fan to sit and watch the event live, knowing that between the start of the first heat race and the end of the main event, there will be 1.5-2 hours maximum of actual racing in an event packaged across 6 hours. This means that a fair few people will only be watching or attending for a certain time frame, contributing to an appearance of empty stands (more on that later too).
Next Gen Reliability
With any new product, there are bound to be teething problems, and there were quite a few that popped up for the new Next Gen cars. In practice, Chase Briscoe hit the wall after he said there was a problem with his throttle pedal. Worrying. Imagine if that happens at Pocono or another high speed track. In the race, Tyler Reddick had a driveline failure while in the lead of the race. Under caution. Chase Briscoe had the same. Denny Hamlin a had a power steering issue that subsequently damaged other parts of the car. Ryan Blaney had what appeared to be a mechanical failure after being rear-ended by Erik Jones.
All of this occurred after running less than 100 miles. What will happen when there is a 500 mile race at Martinsville? At the rate we saw here, there will only be like 15 cars running. The most concerning problem is that there have been reliability problems for months with Next Gen, and it is almost always not the same problem as before. Generally I am a fan of the car, it is a generational leap from the previous cars, and makes NASCAR not the technological laughing stock of motorsport. But continued reliability woes will not reflect well on NASCAR and make it seem like more of a lottery than anything.
The Ugly
The Track Itself
Conceptually, a track inside a prebuilt stadium is a great idea. Great infrastructure and amenities, usually great proximity to a large metropolitan area usually is good for business and for attendees. However, modern NASCAR Cup Series cars are simply not meant for a venue this compact. Here are a few problems I noticed or at least personally did not like:
Strategy? What Strategy?
The smallness of the track means that there is no room for an adequate pit road or service are, so there cannot be pitstops. This eliminates any strategic element impacting the race outcome, before even one wheel has turned.
Speed
Lap times were in the 14 second range; about 1-2 seconds slower than at Bristol; a track that is more than double this size. Average lap speed was in the mid 60's in miles per hour. That's OK, but when you have a car that is meant to go up to 200 mph, you never get past second gear. So what's the point?
Proximity of Incidents
OK, NASCAR probably would see this as a plus, but NASCAR isn't sponsoring this article (and surely won't be anytime soon, probably), but anytime there was any incident
Lack of a Sellout Crowd
NASCAR claims the Clash was sold out. Did they only offer 30,000 tickets? The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (did you know, they had a race there? in the Coliseum? in LA? in California? did you see it? it was at the Coliseum, in Los Angeles by the way) has a listed capacity of about 77,000. With modifications for TV, sponsors, and safety, let's say they reduced it to 60,000. The Coliseum appeared to be about 60-75% full at its peak. That equates to roughly 45,000. The population of the metropolitan Los Angeles area is about 13.2 million according to the 2020 census. Not great, and that's not even factoring in sponsors or anyone from outside of Los Angeles who might want to go.
Race attendance continues to be a struggle for NASCAR, as most of their revenue is generated from TV contracts rather than race attendance and ticket/merchandise sales. There are a number of factors for this, but surely it's not that racing isn't interesting to most Americans anymore. Look at F1's 2021 United States Grand Prix in Austin, TX for proof. IndyCar continues to gain followers year on year. Something's just not adding up. Moving to a large city and trying to engage with a new demographic is a great idea, but it seems like you could've expected attendance on part with at least a USC football game, but even that fell short. Maybe it's just me who sees that as a problem; but if people don't want to go, people watching at home will see that.
What did you think about the Clash? Was it good for NASCAR? In the long run, maybe. But that doesn't mean it was perfect. Or maybe it was? Let us know!
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