NASCAR insider: 'Can't compare' LA Coliseum clash with Bowman Gray Stadium event

The Clash at Bowman Gray may have been another NASCAR race on a quarter-mile track but it was far from the racing at LA Coliseum. The Madhouse provided great action and was a clear message to the grassroots.

With events like the NASCAR Clash, there has to be a purpose. It originally started out as a marketing idea from Busch Beer and the Cup Series. A little preview of what was to come at the Daytona 500.

Clearly, the Clash has changed over the years. Now the season-opening exhibition serves a different purpose. But what exactly is that? NASCAR has to figure it out.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic talked about the differences between LA and Bowman Gray on The Teardown.

“I just think it’s so, it’s two completely different things,” Gluck said. “You can’t really compare them because – so with LA, one is an event to grow the sport. What was it, 70% of ticket holders the first year had never been to a NASCAR race before. You have Ice Cube, Wiz Khalifa, Cypress Hill, I mean it was about the concerts, you had the college section of the partying kids.

“You know, you had right near the city downtown and LA knew that NASCAR was there. The Uber drivers and stuff. It really was about getting into the city, it was an event, new fans, all that stuff. This was like sort of the opposite, right? That was meant to ‘grow the sport.’ This is not growing the sport, this is getting back to the roots of the sport.”

There really could not be more differences, not in the tracks exactly, but the purpose of each event.

NASCAR Clash can be used for promo or grassroots

The LA Coliseum was about the new fans, just as Gluck said. It wasn’t going to attract longtime fans from the South to go to the West Coast. But people who had maybe never watched a Cup Series race before had the sport brought directly to them in Los Angeles.

For Bowman Gray, it was all about the old school. Go in and add permanent updates to the track. Give back to the longest-running weekly series track in NASCAR and the fans who make it all possible.

In the future, NASCAR has to refine what the Clash is going to be. Is it for the grassroots? If so, then what is the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro? Or is it to grow the sport and reach new audiences? If so, then maybe going to big cities or even international could be the future.

The NASCAR Clash has a bright future ahead of it. After proving they can build a track anywhere or improve an already existing track the sky is the limit.