By Granger Neil 2/13/24
The NASCAR season is officially back! Tempers flared as well as starting earlier than most expected. This is thanks to the LA weather. It was supposed to be on Sunday but with it supposed to be raining for a few days straight, they bumped it up to Saturday to avoid the weather. This was a great move by NASCAR, but the crowd was empty. In their defense some people were not prepared to go to the race on Saturday. Even the halfway performance by Machine Gun Kelly was canceled. NASCAR even refunded everyone who bought tickets. In the end this was a big loss in money for NASCAR, but hey, they did the right thing.
Flaring Tempers
The Clash produced lots of flaring tempers. Some of these include Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain, and Ricky Stenhouse against Michael Mcdowell and John Hunter Nemechek. The list does not end there. After the race, Joey Logano confronted Ty Gibbs inside of Gibbs hauler. Most of these were due to the style of short track racing where a lot of bump and runs are common. This is when a driver shoves another driver out of the way with their front bumper. This can be frustrating which is what leads to a lot of flaring tempers.
Notable failed entries
Quite a few big names failed to qualify for the main event. These include Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, and a few more. Buescher did not make any of the main events during any of the 3 years. Dillon was fast and had great speed the other 2 years, so it was a shock when he failed to qualify. Bell was one of the fastest in practice, so it was quite weird he did not make it. The latest champion Ryan Blaney only made it in because he was the highest driver in points last year. However, something was a coincidence. All of these drivers were in the 4th qualifying round. So, who knows, maybe the track conditions were not perfect by then.
Highlights
The winner was Denny Hamlin, who started on the pole. Another mention is Ty Gibbs. He had by far the best car. Based on his speed Gibbs has a good chance of winning his first cup series race. The flaring tempers were also exciting like Stenhouse talking to John Hunter. The racing was particularly good with cautions but not too many cautions. There was a lot of passing and the race stayed green most of the time.