February 6, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Logano brings electric finish to successful Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum

LOS ANGELES—In the most electric season-opener for NASCAR in decades, Joey Logano conquered the Cup 23-car field in the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday.

The quarter-mile track provided the perfect backdrop for classic short-track racing—complete with heat races, last-chance qualifiers and a concert by Pitbull leading up to the main event.

Logano led the final 35 laps and extended his lead over Kyle Busch by .877-seconds at the finish to win the inaugural Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum and claim the first victory in the debut of the Next Gen car.

“I can’t believe it,” said Logano after his second Clash win. “We’re here. The L.A. Coliseum. We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event. Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody.

“I’m out of breath. I was so excited about this. This is a big win. My wife is having a baby tomorrow, our third one, so a pretty big weekend for us.”

Busch’s car was stout during the first half of the race. He led an event-best 65 laps but became loose as the race went on.

“I was being perfect doing everything I needed to do – keep the tires underneath me,” Busch said. “When I got close, I was like, okay I’ve got to try more and pounce at an opportunity and just overheated the tires and smoked them in three laps and that was it. Disappointing, obviously, come out here and win the pole, and lead laps, run up front. The finish goes green and it’s not chaotic and we can’t win, so it sucks.”

Austin Dillon finished third followed by Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger and Kevin Harvick.

The race tested both the drivers and the new car. Kyle Busch started on the pole but Tyler Reddick passed him on the first lap. Busch regained the position but by Lap 3, Reddick was in command. By Lap 13, Reddick had lapped Bubba Wallace and quickly passed Denny Hamlin as well. Thirty-nine laps in, Reddick knocked Martin Truex Jr. off of the lead lap as well.

Chase Briscoe, who started sixth, passed Kyle Larson for fifth on Lap 49 and moved by Justin Haley for third one lap later. By Lap 53, when Harrison Burton turned Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to ignite the first caution, Denny Hamlin was headed to the infield pit area with a steering issue.

“It looks like the power steering belt evidently came off and took the hose with it,” Hamlin said. “We didn’t have any steering ability. This is something you will probably see a lot of this year. It’s just fixing all of the bugs that are going to happen. Unfortunately, had a power steering issue.”

Briscoe followed moments later. And Reddick, who had led 51 of the first 53 laps, slowed entering Turn 1 and came to a stop at the work area entrance after his driveshaft broke.

Busch assumed the lead on the Lap 54 restart with Logano, Larson and Justin Haley in tow. Chase Elliott triggered the second caution after he spun in Turn 4 on Lap 65. Elliott said on the radio that the left front "kept locking up" on him. He dropped to 18th and finished 11th.

Busch and Logano lined up for the restart on Lap 66. Eight laps later, Logano tagged Busch’s bumper coming into Turn 4. Logano took the lead momentarily but due to the timing lines, he was forced to give the point back to Busch as NASCAR called half-time on Lap 75. Haley, Byron, Larson, Blaney, Dillon, Jones, Bell and Allmendinger held the top 10 spots at the breaks.

Ice Cube entertained the crowd while the teams worked on their cars. After a 10-minute break, the race resumed—as did the battle between Busch and Logano. While Busch executed a solid restart, he couldn’t shake Logano.  As Busch encountered traffic on Lap 112, Logano sent the No. 18 Toyota a warning shot entering Turn 4.

Before Logano could take the lead, Blaney brought out the fourth caution following contact with Jones. He showed his dismay with the driver of the No. 43 Chevy by hurling his HANS device in Jones’ direction.

“He destroyed me for seventh," Blaney said. "It doesn’t really make any sense. I don’t know. I was kind of just riding around and just run in the back of you and killed our car. Yeah, I was mad, but you’ll have that.”

The caution cleared the seas for Kyle Busch on the Lap 116 restart. Logano elected to restart on the outside of Busch and got a nose around him after the first lap. But before they could finish the next circuit, Byron pushed Larson into Haley—then Larson punted Haley into the inside wall on the front stretch.

Logano grabbed the lead on the restart and held serve until the checkered flag.

“The engineers do a great job,” Logano added. “The guys working on the car did an amazing job finding speed when we were slow. We were 28th or so on the board yesterday and made some good changes–worked with our teammates–Ryan Blaney a lot. I owe a lot to him, too, to see some of the gains that they made and ultimately get the win.

“I want to say hey to my buddy, Hudson and Jamison (sons) and my wife, Brittany. This is cool.  I’m headed home right after this. I told her, if you’re having the baby I’m just running right off the track from here, so I don’t think it’s happening right now, but this is special to get the first Next Gen win, the first win out here in the Coliseum. It’s a special one, so we’re gonna have some fun and celebrate it.”

With the Coliseum at near capacity--and a rousing reaction from the fans in stands--Ben Kennedy, NASCAR's senior vice president of strategy and innovation considered the Clash an overall success.

"I think the energy behind the crowd here was amazing," Kennedy said. "I was walking back to the media center right after the event, ton of people smiling, laughing. The energy was really just contagious. It was great to see the fan reaction. Looking forward to watching it back on TV again.

"I think we'll have a lot of data coming out of this. I think there is certainly potentially a future here. We'll probably try to make a decision on that sooner than later."