LOS ANGELES – Joey Logano held off a late charge from Kyle Busch to win the historic Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Sunday, becoming the first driver to win in competition with NASCAR’s Next Gen car.
Logano led the final 35 laps and took the checkered flag just as he started getting into lapped traffic.
It is the second win in the Clash for the Team Penske driver, who only led once during the 150-lap exhibition race.
“I’m out of breath, I was so excited about this. This is a big win,” Logano said.
Logano won ahead of Busch, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Kyle Larson.
RESULTS: Busch Light Clash At The Coliseum
The win came after Logano wasn’t particularly fast in practice Saturday.
“(Crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) and Shaggy and the engineers do a great job,” Logano said. “The guys working on the car did an amazing job finding speed when we were slow. We were 28th or so on the board yesterday and made some good changes – worked with our teammates – Ryan Blaney a lot. I owe a lot to him, too, to see some of the gains that they made and ultimately get the win. I want to say hey to my buddy, Hudson and Jamison and my wife, Brittany.
“This is cool. I’m headed home right after this. I told her, if you’re having the baby I’m just running right off the track from here, so I don’t think it’s happening right now, but this is special to get the first Next Gen win, the first win out here in the Coliseum. It’s a special one, so we’re gonna have some fun and celebrate it.”
Busch led a race-high 65 laps around the temporary quarter-mile track before losing the top spot to Logano.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said he used up his tires too quickly to be able to have a shot at getting by Logano.
“I was being perfect, doing everything I thought I needed to do to keep the tires underneath me,” Busch said. “When I got close I was like, ‘Ok, now I got to try more and pounce at an opportunity.’ Just overheated the tires and smoked them in three laps and that was it.”
Busch started from the pole after winning the first heat race held Sunday afternoon. He lost the lead to Tyler Reddick on lap four.
Reddick caught the tail end of the field on lap 16 and started lapping cars within two laps. He caught the back of the field again by lap 40.
The first caution waved on lap 54 for a spin by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in turns three and four. Denny Hamlin, who won his last chance qualifier race, retired during the caution break when his No. 11 Toyota suffered a power steering issue. He finished last.
“It looks like the power steering belt evidently came off and took the hose with it,” Hamlin said. “We didn’t have any steering ability. This is something you will probably see a lot of this year. It’s just fixing all of the bugs that are going to happen.”
Right before the race returned to green, both Chase Briscoe and Reddick’s cars pulled up lame due to mechanical problems. Reddick, who led 51 laps, said the transaxle broke on his No. 8 Chevrolet. A driveline issue put Briscoe out.
Reddick’s problem gave the lead back to Busch.
The caution waved again on lap 66 when Chase Elliott went for a spin entering turn three and lightly hit the outside wall.
Logano almost took the lead from Busch right before the halftime break at lap 75. He delivered a shot to Busch’s rear bumper in turns three and four, sending Busch up the track and allowing Logano to get by on the inside. However, Busch was scored as the leader when the caution came out.
After 75 laps, Busch led Logano, Justin Haley, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Blaney, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Christopher Bell and A.J. Allmendinger. Eighteen of the 23 cars that started the race remained on the lap.
Two laps after the restart, Larson took Logano and Byron three wide on the frontstretch and briefly moved into second behind Busch.
With about 60 laps left, Rick Ware Racing’s Ryan Preece retired from the race with brake problems.
The caution came out with 35 laps to go after Blaney slowed on the track after being forced into the outside wall by Erik Jones.
Blaney pulled his No. 12 Ford into the infield and after exiting the car, threw his HANS device at Jones’ car.
“He wants to destroy me for seventh,” Blaney said. “It don’t really make much sense … yeah I was mad, but you’ll have that.”
Blaney returned to the race and finished 17th.
Jones said he forced Blaney into the wall as payback.
“I was racing with him there and he brake checked me off of (turn four for) no real reason,” Jones told Fox. “I didn’t appreciate that. Felt like I showed it on the track. We have a conversation, we have a conversation. It’s an exhibition race. We’re out here doing what we can. I was frustrated with the move that he made. That’s what happened.”
The race resumed for only one lap before the caution returned. This time for Kyle Larson swerving left and sending Haley into the inside wall on the frontstretch, demolishing the left front of Haley’s No. 31 Chevy. It was apparent retaliation for Haley getting shoved into Larson by Byron earlier.
Logano held the lead over Larson on the restart until Busch took second with 25 laps to go. Busch caught Logano with about 12 laps to go.