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See how the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum track is taking shape
By Staff report | Thursday, January 20, 2022
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Just a few weeks out from the 2022 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, final preparations are underway. NASCAR's annual preseason exhibition race will be held Feb. 6 (6 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the first time.
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The Busch Light Clash will see four heat races, two last-chance qualifiers and a main event take place on Sunday, Feb. 6.
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Twenty-three drivers will make the 150-lap main event with the top four each advancing from heat races and the top three from the last-chance qualifiers making it. The final spot will go to the highest points getter in 2021 that did not qualify through the heats and LCQ.
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The action will kick off on Feb. 5 with practice and single-lap qualifying runs.
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The roughly 0.25-mile track is nearly ready for action.
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The famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has hosted lots of events from the Summer Olympics to the Super Bowl to concerts to University of Southern California football games.
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NASCAR officials and dignitaries gathered in December for a groundbreaking ceremony at the LA Coliseum, turning the first shovels on what will be a temporary quarter-mile asphalt track for the 2022 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum exhibition. The ceremony took place exactly 100 years after the venue's original groundbreaking.
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An overview of the quarter-mile oval layout that will be paved and ready for the annual NASCAR Cup Series exhibition.
"Every time I walk in here, I get goosebumps," said Auto Club Speedway president Dave Allen. "... The opportunity for NASCAR to race inside the Coliseum is really unbelievable, and a credit to Ben Kennedy (NASCAR Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation) and the brainchild he had there for this event. It's coming together, there's dirt going down and it's starting to look like a race track."
"Every time I walk in here, I get goosebumps," said Auto Club Speedway president Dave Allen. "... The opportunity for NASCAR to race inside the Coliseum is really unbelievable, and a credit to Ben Kennedy (NASCAR Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation) and the brainchild he had there for this event. It's coming together, there's dirt going down and it's starting to look like a race track."
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The 2022 Busch Light Clash logo adorns the big screen behind a sea of deep-reed seats at the L.A. Coliseum, the longtime home to the University of Southern California football.
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Mounds of dirt sit ready for ceremonial shovels with the Coliseum's iconic grand peristyle as a backdrop.
"Today is actually the centennial of our original groundbreaking where L.A. and civic leaders had a vision for what a venue like this would mean, in L.A. in Exposition Park," said Kevin Daly, the Coliseum's assistant general manager. "So we're excited to continue that tradition of having Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, 98 years of USC football and now a NASCAR Cup Series event, which is just a tremendous opportunity for us. We're excited to have it, and again it's been a true partnership in envisioning what this'll look like and what this can be."
"Today is actually the centennial of our original groundbreaking where L.A. and civic leaders had a vision for what a venue like this would mean, in L.A. in Exposition Park," said Kevin Daly, the Coliseum's assistant general manager. "So we're excited to continue that tradition of having Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, 98 years of USC football and now a NASCAR Cup Series event, which is just a tremendous opportunity for us. We're excited to have it, and again it's been a true partnership in envisioning what this'll look like and what this can be."
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Michael Waltrip, former driver and current analyst for FOX Sports, was on hand to survey the construction site inside the Coliseum's bowl. "You will get cold chills when you walk through the peristyle and see this race track," Waltrip said. "Kind of makes me want to get back behind the wheel."
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The curvature of what will be Turns 3 and 4 on the quarter-mile layout stretch out over the Coliseum's east end.
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Hard hats and reflective safety vests get the NASCAR treatment with 2022 Clash branding.
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The early morning California sun shimmers over the Coliseum's eastern edge.
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The venue sits idle for now, save for the work being done to prepare for the Feb. 6 event. But the sound of stock-car rumble will soon fill the Southern California air.
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The afternoon sun hits the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with an upper-deck view of the track below and the city in the distance.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
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Crews work to install asphalt in early January with the race just more than a month away.
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An aerial view of the track, with the full oval paved in.
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Soon, stock cars will rumble on this quarter-mile layout.
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And these stands will be packed with fans to take in all the big-city action.
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It's a beautiful site. And sight.
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The exterior wall of the track is nearly complete.
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Tractors begin to install catchfences.
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The catchfences will run all along the exterior wall, keeping cars inside the track and protecting fans from debris.
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A complete overhead view, detailing how the entire track is shaping up.
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