It was an unprecedented but well-received decision when NASCAR elected to run The Clash a day earlier than scheduled to avoid a potential washout.
Heavy rain was expected to invade the greater Los Angeles area on Sunday, so to avoid the impending weather, NASCAR boldly chose to get the show on the road sooner rather than later. It must have felt Sunday wasn’t going to be an option, and with clear skies over the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, the sanctioning body pulled the trigger and told teams and fans that the green flag would wave shortly after 5 p.m. PT.
“Due to the threat of unprecedented severe weather on Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Mexico Series race events for the Clash have been moved to Saturday night,” NASCAR said in a statement. “Thanks to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Los Angeles Public Safety for their partnership and support to make the schedule adjustment for tonight’s event to ensure a safe experience for fans, competitors, and staff. We understand weather conditions may worsen as the day progresses, so we encourage fans to make decisions in the best interest of safety. We appreciate our fans, partners, and everyone associated with this event on this unprecedented event.”
Racing on Saturday night — a weekend night — seemed like a better idea than waiting around on Sunday while it rained. And then rescheduling the race for Monday afternoon. And making the industry spend an extra day on the West Coast. And keeping the temporary track intact for an additional day and trying to get spectators to show up on a weekday. It would have created a situation no one wanted to endure.
Certainly, some fans planned to attend the race on Sunday and couldn’t scramble to the stadium on Saturday with only about five hours’ notice. It’s unfair to those who made plans to go, made hotel reservations, bought plane tickets, or made other travel plans. There is no doubt there are fans who have a sour taste in their mouths from this. But they probably wouldn’t be able to wait around all day Sunday only for the race to transpire on Monday, either.
“It’s one of the most logical decisions we’ve made as an industry, potentially ever,” Chase Elliott said about moving the race up a day.
Kyle Busch went as far as saying it was “genius.”
NASCAR undoubtedly took a financial hit from this weekend. Fans were already permitted to come into the stadium for free on Saturday. That was before the decision to race in the evening was made. And since the original date was for Sunday, it most likely will have dismal TV ratings, too.
NASCAR had to cancel its halftime show, which was supposed to be performed by Machine Gun Kelly, citing safety concerns as an issue. But NASCAR made the most of a bad situation, and it wasn’t about to let rain delay its first event of the season.
For that, one must applaud the brain trust that made a Saturday night short track show happen instead of letting a wet and catastrophic Sunday become a reality.
“When you look at logistics, going to Daytona, what’s the best thing for teams? Certainly, if we could race Saturday, that’s helpful for them. It’s an inconvenience certainly for those who had tickets and were really looking forward to this,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s COO.
“We’re going to be reaching out to every single fan to make it good on their end, but this was our best option for us to at least see some racing and get people tuning in.”
