Drivers and Fans React to the Last Minute LA Clash Changes

What’s Happening?

With Sunday’s weather in L. A. looking doubtful, NASCAR has decided to move the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum has been moved up to Saturday night, at 8 pm EST! This means that all four of the heat races have been scrubbed, as have the last chance qualifiers. And the big main event will take place TONIGHT! With this schedule change, it didn’t take long for the teams, the drivers, and the fans to react on social media.

You Need To Know:

• When the Clash schedule was initially announced, there were some drivers within the industry who didn’t particularly love it. The criticism got even harsher once the L.A. forecast for this weekend came out, predicting heavy rain on Sunday. While NASCAR initially toyed with the idea of running the race potentially on wet-weather tires (but not in actively pouring rain) and even postponing the event to Monday, the overall consensus has been positive, with many drivers and teams giving NASCAR props for making the “right decision”.
• The wet-weather tire talk gave a lot of teams some pause because NASCAR attempted a similar thing with the All-Star Race in 2023, which was widely viewed as a disappointment considering all the hype around the return of that track. With this possibly being the last year of an event of this type, it’s vital that NASCAR goes out with a bang to potentially shop The Clash around to different venues in 2025 and beyond.
• Largely, the fans love this decision as well. When the Clash was initially announced, gates weren’t even going to be open for the Saturday events. However, after a large amount of fan backlash online, NASCAR made the right decision and opted not only to open the gates on Saturday but make access to the track completely FREE. With NASCAR moving the race up a day, that means that the 2024 Clash will be an entirely FREE event, making for a lot of happy fans in the larger L.A. area as well as some NASCAR loyalists who traveled to the event.

The Main Characters

Obviously, the biggest main character of this story is NASCAR as a sanctioning body. By moving the race up, fans get free access to the Clash as well as the Machine Gun Kelly half-time performance. This is great exposure for our sport and NASCAR deserves a lot of props for being able to pull this off!

Also, NASCAR on FOX is a big character today as they welcome, officially, their new analyst, former NASCAR driver, Kevin Harvick!

Around the Garage

Part-time Truck Series driver and FOX analyst, Parker Kligerman applauds NASCAR’s decision to move the race up and gives them a huge round of applause!

Development driver, Bread Perez took to Twitter strictly as a fan to express his love for this decision.

Denny Hamlin says, “NASCAR with the WIN!”

RFK wasn’t sleeping when it came to letting their fans know of the schedule change.

Kaulig Racing’s admins tweeted this rather humorous photo of a swimming pool in the middle of the infield. If the forecast for tomorrow is correct, it’s not far from the truth!

In The Stands

With the Clash being moved to Saturday night, which was free to any fan who wanted to come to watch the Heat races, Diego Alvarado asks if this is the first ever free NASCAR race. It certainly is of the modern era. We know that much!

Michael Murcz pokes fun at NASCAR’s previous decision to not allow fans at the track on Saturday. Opening the gates was a big win for the fans and NASCAR as a sanctioning body.

u/shanghai_tactics took to Reddit to ask if admission for tonight’s race would still be free.

JGRFan11181920 answered the question. Gates 1 and 28 are for free-admission fans!

One_Mirror_3228 speculates that this may kill the Clash being in L. A. Netwealth5 then points out that this, most likely, was going to be the last year, anyway. They then go on to speculate that the Clash will be moved in 2025 to Mexico City.

Then Campman92 begged the biggest question: Is Kyle Busch even eligible to race in Mexico!???

On Your Screen

Our friend and partner, Eric Estepp of Out of the Groove took to X (previously known as Twitter) to give his thoughts on this historic event!

Darian Gilliam, aka Black Flags Matter, is just thrilled to see cars back zooming around the track!

From the Pressbox

What do you think, NASCAR fans and Daily Downforce readers? Do you think NASCAR made the right decision? What do you think about the free admission? Let us know and continue to follow us on all our social media platforms for the newest news in the NASCAR sphere!