NASCAR will race Busch Light Clash on Saturday night due to incoming severe weather

NASCAR has officially decided to move the Busch Light Clash up to tonight due to the incoming severe weather. Southern California is going to be slammed with rainfall expected to be “unprecedented.” That left NASCAR with little choice.

With teams traveling all the way to Los Angeles for a number of days already, NASCAR didn’t want to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday. Cup Series drivers and teams are going to be preparing for the Daytona 500 as soon as they get home from the Busch Light Clash.

Rumors started to swirl on social media. Then, the word came from NASCAR themselves.

The Busch Light Clash will now be raced at 5:00 PM tonight. That is 8PM EST.

Due to the incoming weather, the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum will run today, Saturday February 3, at 5 pm. Admission will remain free to the public with limited facilities available to fans today. Sunday ticketholders, who purchased through Ticketmaster or NASCAR, will be… pic.twitter.com/pVgEew9PNO

— Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum (@nascarclash) February 3, 2024

This all happened very quickly. NASCAR was hoping to get in the practice and qualifying sessions for the Mexico Series and then do the Heat races for the Cup Series later tonight. With a small window before the rain gets to Los Angeles, they had to change things up.

In a historic football stadium, NASCAR called a massive audible and now we will see how it goes. The drivers and teams will get to run through the practice session and set the lineup. That will go down at 5:35 PM EST.

Busch Light Clash moved up

Now, if this was a points-paying race, NASCAR would have had a much harder decision to make. Since the Busch Light Clash is an exhibition race, things aren’t as serious. Drivers are going to be happier to rush things today and get ready to race on short notice than sit in their hotels for three days.

Had NASCAR tried to wait it out, they may have had to cancel the event altogether. I’d rather have a rushed Clash than no Clash at all. This also frees up the second day of the weekend for fans who would have spent Sunday praying for a break in the clouds.

The Busch Light Clash is supposed to be fun. I hate that this likely means we won’t get to see the pre-race activities as planned this weekend. No Machine Gun Kelly concert. Today was supposed to be a free entry day with tickets being sold for Sunday’s main event.

NASCAR will have to deal with refunding fans. However, saving their Cup Series organizations from being stranded for several days in Los Angeles days ahead of the Daytona 500 had to happen.

Looks like we get racing a little earlier than we expected, folks! The NASCAR Mexico Series will race after the Cup Series tonight.