NASCAR Gets Thumbs Up for Moving Clash from L.A. Coliseum to Bowman Gray Stadium

• Taking NASCAR to the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2022 was an experiment fueled by commerce and exposure.

• However, dwindling attendance and lackluster television ratings suggested that after three years at the Coliseum, the market had seen enough.

• The city-owned quarter-mile around Winston-Salem State’s football field attracts huge crowds for its emotional, high-intensity Saturday night racing shows.

Good call, NASCAR. Three years of the Busch Light Clash in the Los Angeles Coliseum were about two too many.

Bringing the “spring training” exhibition back home for appreciative fans at an iconic venue is thanks-worthy. Granted, it’ll be 30 or 40 degrees colder at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Feb. 2, but that’s a small price to pay for leaving Southern California after three so-so years.

The switch from LA to BGS became easier once NASCAR assumed control of the track’s weekly racing program. The city-owned quarter-mile around Winston-Salem State’s football field attracts huge crowds for its emotional, high-intensity Saturday night shows. Finally, the Clash will be run before a sellout crowd that knows a race car from a stretch limo.

NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy, who won an ARCA race there 11 years ago, announced the move during a recent BGS show. “We’re coming back to The Madhouse,” he said, invoking the track’s familiar and appropriate nickname. “Bringing our Cup Series back here for the first time since the 1970s will be another historic event. This will be an opportunity to celebrate our roots, our history, and celebrate our NASCAR regional series.”

Taking NASCAR to LA in 2022 was an experiment fueled by commerce and exposure. With Auto Club Speedway going under, the sport’s stakeholders wanted a high-profile, prime-time presence in the lucrative Southern California market. Despite the inconvenience and expense—and after 42 years during Speed Week in Daytona Beach—putting Cup cars on a quarter-mile track around USC’s football field seemed a good idea.

Well… maybe for a while.

The first one fell two weeks before the season-opening Daytona 500. It’s been described as “wildly successful” after being hyped almost as much as the first Chicago street race. And like Chicago, it felt more like a “social event” than a race. Live entertainment – Pitbull was among the headliners – was crucial to attracting millennials, many of whom were new to NASCAR. The racing was marginally entertaining, given that many on the grid had never been on a track that small. Granted, Clash ’25 at Bowman Gray might become a demo derby, but that’s what its customers expect.

To nobody’s surprise, the public reaction after Joey Logano won the ’22 debut was over the moon. And there were good vibes after Martin Truex Jr. won in ’23. Likewise, positive reviews after Denny Hamlin won this year. But dwindling attendance and lackluster television ratings suggested the market had seen enough. If Southern California yawned at the first two, it slept through the weather-impacted third one.

“It was really cool being out there,” Logano said. “No doubt, there was an amazing ‘cool factor’ about being in the Coliseum. But I’m a fan of moving things around, trying different tracks, so this is fine with me. LA was fun and Bowman Gray will be interesting.”

Truex Jr. said Bowman Gray likely will produce even more full-contact moments than LA. “The Coliseum seemed longer, with more room to race. Bowman Gray will be tighter and probably a one-groove track, and I don’t see the outside lane being able to keep up. There’ll be more rooting and gouging, which is what people want.”

Chase Elliott called the ’22 Clash something of a home run. “But then, how do you make the next one as good and the one after that?” he said. “You need a really, really good event to keep up the interest. In our case, I think we definitely lost some magic along the way.”

Bowman Gray hosted points-paying Cup Series events from 1958-1971. Among its winners: Hall of Fame drivers Richard and Lee Petty, David Pearson, Junior Johnson, Bobby Allison, Glen Wood, and Rex White. Former Cup champions Elliott and Kyle Larson ran ARCA there, along with William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, and Corey LaJoie. As a teenager, championship-winning owner Richard Childress sold popcorn and peanuts in the grandstands to pay for his first race car. He started 29th and finished 21st in June 1971, when Allison won the track’s 39th and final Cup race in a Mustang.

How important is this LA-BG switch to NASCAR? Important enough that its own studios and FOX Sports Films will produce a one-hour documentary for FS1 titled “The Madhouse: NASCAR’s Return to Bowman Gray Stadium.”

Never did that for LA, did they?