The first race of the NASCAR season is in the books with the No. 11 driven by Denny Hamlin going to victory lane at the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum.
For the second year in a row NASCAR held the non points paying Clash race at The Coliseum in Los Angeles. The race was scheduled to be held on Sunday Feb. 4 but weather concerns forced NASCAR to bump the race up to Saturday evening. The 150 lap race featured 23 drivers.
Denny Hamlin began the night on the pole as 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney had to take a provisional just to make the field. Joey Logano would lead the first two laps of the race before Hamlin would retake the top spot until lap 50 when Ty Gibbs would pass him.
Todd Gilliland would bring out the first caution on lap 71 after spinning due to a brake issue. With only green flag laps counting the cars would circle under caution while laps did not count.
Logano would get the jump on the restart but contact from Corey LaJoie that spun John Hunter Nemechek would result in a one lap shootout to end the first half of the race. Logano would finish the first half as the leader while Kyle Busch who restarted second fell to fifth.
After 75 laps the race went to a 10 minute break for halftime.
Alex Bowman would get into the back of Tyler Reddick which resulted in Bubba Wallace being spun. Moments later Ross Chastain would go around after contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr as Reddick would get a restart violation. Gibbs would get back to the front and the race began to click off laps as Blaney who started last moved up to seventh after the race passed the 100 lap mark.
With 10 laps to go contact between Chastain and Michael McDowell made contact with the No. 34 going around. On the restart Hamlin would grab the lead as Gibbs struggled to hang onto his machine crashing on the final lap and creating a one lap shootout.
In the end it would he Hamlin crossing the line first to claim the win.
The first points race will be the season opening Daytona 500 on February 18.
Busch Light Clash Results
February 3, 2024
|
POSITION
|
START
|
LED
|
BEHIND
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
D. Hamlin#11
|
1
|
59
|
Winner
|
|
2 |
K. Busch#8
|
5
|
0
|
0.610
|
|
3 |
R. Blaney#12
|
23
|
0
|
0.883
|
|
4 |
J. Logano#22
|
2
|
8
|
1.213
|
|
5 |
K. Larson#5
|
8
|
0
|
2.703
|
|
6 |
A. Bowman#48
|
4
|
0
|
2.984
|
|
7 |
C. Briscoe#14
|
22
|
0
|
3.491
|
|
8 |
B. Keselowski#6
|
13
|
1
|
3.907
|
|
9 |
M. Truex Jr#19
|
19
|
0
|
4.212
|
|
10 |
W. Byron#24
|
6
|
0
|
4.232
|
|
11 |
R. Preece#41
|
12
|
0
|
5.338
|
|
12 |
B. Wallace#23
|
9
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
13 |
T. Reddick#45
|
11
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
14 |
J. Nemechek#42
|
21
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
15 |
R. Chastain#1
|
7
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
16 |
R. Stenhouse Jr#47
|
20
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
17 |
C. LaJoie#7
|
18
|
0
|
1 Lap
|
|
18 |
T. Gibbs#54
|
3
|
84
|
1 Lap
|
|
19 |
M. McDowell#34
|
15
|
0
|
2 Laps
|
|
20 |
N. Gragson#10
|
17
|
0
|
4 Laps
|
|
21 |
J. Haley#51
|
10
|
0
|
16 Laps
|
|
22 |
C. Elliott#9
|
14
|
0
|
74 Laps
|
|
23 |
T. Gilliland#38
|
16
|
0
|
83 Laps
|
