Joey Logano ended the day victorious in the inaugural Busch Clash at LA Coliseum on Sunday. Logano started fourth after winning his respective heat race earlier in the day and led 35 of the 150 circuits.
“I can’t believe it. We’re here. The L.A. Coliseum,” Logano exclaimed in victory lane. “We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event.”
The historic event marked the unofficial start of the NASCAR Cup Series season and drew much interest from around the country. It also marked the first time that NASCAR’s new NextGen cars were used in a competitive event. Logano later praised NASCAR on the historic event.
“Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody,” said the winner. “ I’m out of breath. I was so excited about this. This is a big win.”
Kyle Busch was fastest in single-car qualifying on Saturday and won the first of four heat races on Sunday to earn the pole. In the 150-lap main event on Sunday, the Las Vegas native led 64 circuits en route to his runner-up finish.
“I was being perfect doing everything I needed to do – keep the tires underneath me,” Busch described his day. “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 on the leaderboard after starting 10th.
Erik Jones and fan-favorite Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
William Byron, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger and Kevin Harvick took home top 10 finishes.
Three drivers upfront suffered mechanical issues after 52 – 53 laps that ended their day. Among the three included Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick.
Five caution flags slowed the event and had an elapsed time of 57 minutes and 39 seconds.
One of those yellow flags involved Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones and resulted in Blaney angrily throwing his HANS device at Jone’s No. 43 Chevrolet. Piloting the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, Blaney went on to finish 17th and three laps down.
The Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20th on FOX and MRN Radio will serve as the official start of the 2022 season.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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