NASCAR starts season with The Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Kevin Harvick has twice raced a stock car through the streets of Los Angeles. He watched Mickey Thompson’s super trucks on television when they raced inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“This is over the top and looks great,” Harvick said. “I don’t think you can screw it up at this point. The event is here. The race track didn’t fly up. Practice went good. The cars all made the corners. People were passing each other. You can’t screw it up at this point. You can’t. I am telling you. The race doesn’t even matter.”But this isn’t your grandfather’s old NASCAR, either.
The industry has first-day-of-school energy and teams seem genuinely motivated to perform Sunday night. NASCAR, claiming it is pleased with ticket sales, and said at the start of this week that 70% of people who had bought seats identified as first-time NASCAR attendees. A concert stage for a prerace Pit Bull show and a performance by Ice Cube at “halftime” was built along the Peristyle plaza. Their sets will be performed under the Olympic cauldron torch built for the 1932 Summer Games.One Wounded In I-10 Freeway Shooting; SIG Alert, CHP Investigation Closes All Westbound Lanes For HoursIt was glowing Saturday, the day before NASCAR’s expensive exhibition.
“That race was kind of just going on, I feel like, to go on,” said reigning Cup champion Kyle Larson. “It added a week of being in Daytona … all for what?”