February 6, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

The Heat is on at the L.A. Coliseum--and the Clash LCQs, too.

LOS ANGELES—NASCAR turned up the heat at the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday.

The afternoon started with four 25-lap qualifying heats. Heat polesitters Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley and Joey Logano held serve to the finish to advance to the feature. Busch will start from the pole for the Busch Light Clash from the Coliseum

In the Last Chance Qualifiers, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Preece won the 50-lappers. 

“I altered my line a little bit to get my car to do different things,” Hamlin said. “I knew I was solid, that’s why I didn’t push it in the heat race.”

Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney advanced from Heat 1 along with Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer from Heat 2. William Byron, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott transferred from Heat 3 followed by Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell and Erik Jones out of Heat 4. 

Truex, who finished seventh in Heat 2, opted to take the provisional and skip the Last Chance Qualifying race.

Five laps into the first LCQ, Todd Gilliland hooked the No. 10 in the right rear entering and sent Almirola sailing into the Turn 3 wall. The moment marked the first red flag for the Next Gen car. 

“It was a bigger hit than I expected with as slow as we were going here,” Almirola said. “The 38 just destroyed us.  We had a decent start and we were moving forward and the 38 just drove in there a mile and tore us up.”

Hamlin easily held on to advance along with Kevin Harvick and AJ Allmendinger.

There were no surprises in drivers missing the first LCQ. However, the second semi-feature provided plenty of fireworks—and two former champions on the outside looking in. Nine laps in, the top three drivers were Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch. On Lap 16, Bowman delivered a bit of a bump to let Wallace know he was coming through. Busch knocked on the back of the No. 48 Chevy two laps later as the top three began pulling away.

On Lap 25, Ty Dillon knocked Harrison Burton out of fourth-place in Turn 2 to trigger the first caution in the second LCQ. When the race restarted, Bowman was able to lead a lap but was knocked out of position entering Turn 1. That enabled Kurt Busch to slide in behind his teammate Wallace. By the second caution on Lap 33—involving Landon Cassill, Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece—Busch slid under Wallace and Bowman climbed to fourth behind Dillon.

Dillon jumped the restart and was black-flagged by NASCAR while running second. On Lap 39, he finally dropped to the rear of the field. Meanwhile, Busch had extended his lead when the third caution was called on Lap 42 following contact between Keselowski and Cassill. Dillon punted Cindric for Caution 4 on Lap 43.

With seven laps remaining, Wallace knocked Busch from the lead. As the field entered Turn 1, Busch was on the outside of an altercation between Dillon and Cindric when he ended up in the wall—and eventually in the infield.

“Just got put on a bad spot on one of the restarts,” Busch said. “When you are not managing the race and holding the white line, it puts you in a vulnerable spot. We needed to transfer. We needed to start off the year strong, and we did not. I’m just disappointed to not be in the A-main. 

“We’re racing in the Coliseum. This is what it is all about. NASCAR did a great job putting this all together. Thanks to Monster Energy, Toyota, Jumpman, everybody’s with this team. We’re supposed to be in the A-Main, and we’re not.”  

Bowman sustained damage in the previous wreck and also limped into the infield after 45 laps. Burton held the point with five laps remaining and Dillon and Preece in transfer spots. Dillon nailed Burton two laps later for the lead. He appeared to be destined for the win—until NASCAR reviewed the restart and penalized him a second time for an illegal restart. Preece was declared the winner. Wallace and Burton advanced to the Main. 

Green flag for the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is scheduled to wave at 6:30 p.m. ET.