As soon as it was announced last year that NASCAR’s curtain-raising Clash will be staged at the LA Coliseum in 2022, one of the things many questioned was based on a fundamental element of racing – Will the cars be fast enough on that track? And now when we’re a day away from the race, now that we have had stock cars drive on the short track, that question, more or less, remains the same. But perhaps the recent comments of Kyle Busch can provide an answer.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver took the pole position for the opening heat race at the iconic venue. Busch, who also took the first position in last year’s Clash at Daytona said, “Lap times were a little bit quicker than many of us expected or anticipated.” 

“The driving of the car was about as much as I’d expect it to be.”

He also shared insights on the issues during the small lap around, what is really a football stadium.

“I think some of the issue is just brakes on entry — making sure you slow down fast enough for the tight confines to be able to make the turn that you have. The acceleration to me was better than I had anticipated.”

Denny Hamlin, JGR teammate of Kyle Busch on tight corners in the Next Gen

Busch’s teammate Hamlin also mentioned the tight, confined corners of the track at the Coliseum. “The car turned the corner just better than I thought,” he said.

“There was no way our old car was going to make it around these corners.”

“But this one, we talked about how it’s better for road course racing. These corners are very, very tight — tighter than anything that we have. It cornered quite a bit better than what I was anticipating. But other than that, everything was the same,” Hamlin added.

It’s true that the speeds around the LA Coliseum aren’t exactly what melts brains off. But speed isn’t the reason NASCAR came to Los Angeles.

And anyway, as Chase Elliott said, “You don’t have to go fast for good racing.” 

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