Truex triumphs as NASCAR returns to the L.A. Coliseum
LOS ANGELES — Martin Truex Jr. won NASCAR’s return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for its season-opening exhibition race — a sloppy Sunday night extravaganza in which the Wiz Khalifa halftime show might have been the most entertaining part of the event.
Truex took the lead with 25 laps to go in the Busch Light Clash, a 150-lap race that was moved from Daytona International Speedway last year to the Coliseum. NASCAR built a temporary quarter-mile track inside the iconic venue in a bold attempt to try something radically different.
Truex, who contemplated retirement during last year’s winless season, won for the first time since Sept. 11, 2021.
“Last year was a pretty rough season for us with no wins, and to come out here and kick it off this way, really proud of all these guys,” Truex said.
Last year’s race was considered a smashing success based on the new fans drawn to the event and excitement over the progressive approach to creating a brand new type of racing.
NASCAR knew it was going to be difficult to duplicate the success in its return and the racing Sunday wasn’t great — there were 25 cautions, and laps under yellow didn’t count. There were only five cautions in last year’s race.
“Last year’s show I felt like was relatively clean and good racing, some bumping, some banging, but we could run long stretches of green flag action,” Kyle Busch said. “Today was, I would call it a disaster with the disrespect from everybody of just driving through each other.
“But it’s a quarter mile. It’s tight-quarters racing. Actually this is probably how it should have gone last year, so we got spoiled with a good show the first year. Maybe this was just normal.”
Truex put Joe Gibbs Racing in victory lane to start 2023 after a horrible close to last year. Coy Gibbs, who essentially ran his father’s race team, passed away in his sleep the night before the November season finale. Coy Gibbs’ death came just hours after his son, Ty, won NASCAR’s secondtier Xfinity Series championship.
Austin Dillon and Busch, in his debut for Richard Childress Racing, finished second and third for RCR. They joined Truex on a podium for a NASCAR-first medal ceremony held below the Coliseum’s famed peristyle.
Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson went fourth and fifth for Hendrick Motorsports, and Tyler Reddick was sixth in his debut for 23XI.