Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher miss out on qualifying for the Busch Light Clash

Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher, two drivers from last year’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, did not qualify for Saturday night’s Busch Light Clash exhibition race at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

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With a change in the format, only the 22 fastest cars in Saturday’s practice sessions qualified for the feature race, with the 23rd provisional spot being locked up by reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.

Buescher and Bell posted times of 13.574 and 13.593 seconds, respectively. Buescher was 30th out of 36 drivers in final practice in his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, and Bell just 33rd on the speed chart in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

“Practice was good,” said Bell, who reached the Championship 4 last season. “I felt like we were in a really good spot, and just didn’t have it in qualifying.”

Said Buescher: “Definitely made some decent improvement there for the last, third run. So yeah, I don’t understand why our group there was a lot slower than we were in practice. We needed some speed increase, and we were able to get a little bit but the cars that were really fast in our group slowed down. Ultimately just needed to turn a little better in the center.”

The Busch Light Clash was moved to Saturday night because of a severe weather forecast of torrential rain and potential flooding in the LA area for its originally scheduled Sunday evening start.

Thirteen drivers did not qualify for the 23-car field. Among them were all three Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidates: Carson Hocevar (25th in qualifying), Josh Berry (26th) and Zane Smith (36th).