DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Busch Clash, NASCAR’s annual season-opening exhibition race for pole winners and other assorted stars, has gone through numerous changes through the years.
The 43rd running of the event on Tuesday night will feature perhaps the biggest overhaul in the history of the event that has been run under various sponsor names and with numerous formats.
For the first time, the race will be run on the 3.61-mile Daytona Int’l Speedway road course layout, a stark change from years past when the race was contested on the 2.5-mile, high-banked oval.
The NASCAR version of the Daytona road course includes an extra chicane off turn four of the oval that is not utilized during the Rolex 24 for IMSA-sanctioned sports cars.
The Busch Clash will go 35 laps, with a competition caution at or around lap 15, for a race distance of 126.35 miles. Four sets of tires will be allotted to each team for the Clash.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of qualifying at most events last season, the list of eligible NASCAR Cup Series drivers for the event got a substantial shakeup as well.
Last year’s pole winners from the Cup Series events that did have qualifying earned berths in the Busch Clash field, joined by last year’s Cup Series playoff drivers, stage winners and race winners.
Additionally, any past Busch Clash winners, Daytona 500 champions and Daytona 500 pole winners who competed full time last season were also granted Busch Clash eligibility.
In alphabetical order, the Clash-eligible drivers are Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Martin Truex Jr.
That makes for a 21-driver field, with three others — Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth — who were eligible but will not participate.
Logano, the 2018 Cup Series champion, doesn’t feel the Clash will lose any of its excitement because it’s on the road course and not the oval.
“All of the intensity will be there, just like it is in the Clash every year,” Logano told SPEED SPORT. “Just because it’s on a road course this year doesn’t really change that, I don’t think. The intensity is going to be up there. It’s an all-star (type of) race. There’s nothing to lose, so everyone is going to be racing aggressively. I think when you see those braking zones — where if it’s a point race, maybe they come back and drivers try not to have any contact and get any damage or whatever — but in an all-star type event where there’s really nothing to lose, I think you’re going to see cars send it into those braking zones, locking (up) tires, maybe beating doors off each other when they get to the corner.
“There’s plenty of opportunity for stuff like that in this race track; there are four, maybe five spots you can try to out-brake somebody, and each one presents its own risk,” Logano added. “I plan on being very aggressive to try and find those edges and know where those are in an all-star race, knowing that we’re going back there in a couple of weeks when it matters even more.”
The Busch Clash takes the green flag at 7 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Blaney will lead the field at the start after the grid was determined via blind draw on Monday night. He’ll be joined on the front row by Alex Bowman, with Hamlin, Keselowski and Byron filling out the top five.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers will then return to the Daytona road course on Feb. 21 for a points-paying race, which was realigned from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., due to COVID-19 restrictions.