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| Penske Racing's Joey Logano, driving the new Next Gen No. 22 Ford Mustang racing platform, accepts the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum trophy for his win in this unique "one-of" promotional non-points paying race to kick-off the 2022 season on February 6th, 2022. Image Credit: Ralph Garcia (2022) |
From Beginning To End, BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum A GoGo Logano
Show
It is as if Joey, and Team Penske, were going to own this very special and
unique opportunity to showcase both NASCAR and the introduction of the 7th
specification racing platform developed for the racing sectioning body
termed "Next Gen" from the time the racing team transporters were scheduled
to load-in to the trophy presentation at the Peristyle End of the iconic Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The Pennzoil/Shell logo'd Team Penske transporter kicked the event off in
grand style by being the absolute last rig to arrive and signaling to all
just who was in town and that the party could now begin with the scheduled
5:00pm Transporter staging process.
The staging area was one parking lot on the South side of the Banc Of
California Stadium (just East of the NASCAR staging and pits), designed for
professional soccer competitions
during this sport's annual competitive seasons. Mixed in with all of the
NASCAR team semi-truck transporters was a group of transporters used to be
the equipment travelling squad for concerts headlined by two southern
California bands, Glendale's
System Of A Down
and KORN, having
formed in Bakersfield.
Once all of the team rigs were set, then the pit preparation began and this
potential delay would have set all of the teams back in their BUSCH
Light Clash At The Coliseum preparations.
The Transporters were placed side-by-side in the Southeast open parking lot
that parallels Martin Luther King Blvd., the teams set their pit operations
directly out of the back tail lift gate continuing straight out as the pit
crews worked elbow to elbow next to each other.
The life of a winning race car driver has many demands placed on their time.
It is rare that during an event/race weekend that the curiosity and the joy
of discovery is able to have precedence over sponsor receptions and other
business gatherings to keep engines running. Joey ... had other ideas. He
just wanted to see custom builds that featured very powerful engines.
The Coliseum, besides going through very incredible and professional
transformation into a first rate 1/4 mile asphalt racing track ... but the
transformation did not end there. Nobody would have guessed this, but on
Friday (Feb. 4, 2022), the whole venue became a production set and studio
for the promotion of several related products and upcoming events.
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| Lightning McQueen begins to stretch it out along the back straight-away after leaving Turn 2 at the peristyle end, complete with the Olympic Flame Torch, during his time on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum "one-of" oval race track during a promotional photo shoot for Mattel's Hot Wheels. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2022) |
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| If this were not real life, one might think this posed image of Disney Pixar's Lightning McQueen was actually a computer-generated painted cell from an upcoming presentation of Cars. McQueen is posing not too far from where famed Olympic track athlete, Carl Lewis won four of his nine Olympic gold medals during the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2022) |
NBC Sports was able, with the permission of NASCAR racing series
co-broadcasting partner FOX Sports, to film a special Super Bowl
advertisement having four of the new Next Gen cars enter the floor of the
Coliseum.
The cars and drivers featured for this advert shoot were
No. 9 Chase Elliott - Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet |
No. 12 Ryan Blaney - Team Penske Ford |
No. 23 Bubba Wallace - 23XI Racing Toyota |
No. 48 Alex Bowman - Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The shoot had these cars line up behind a pick-up truck painted with a
special livery using Cincinnati Bengals black and orange colors featuring a
Bengals football helmet graphic on the outside-track right-hand door, and a
Los Angeles Rams helmet graphic on the inside-track left-hand door (still
surrounded with the Bengals colors livery where the LA Rams used to call
home field).
The pick-up truck led the four cars on a pace lap, then turned them loose
for a few laps of exhibition - the very first time the sound of these 670hp
NASCAR engines filled the LA Coliseum with the vibrations bouncing off of
the empty stadium seats. Everyone at the Coliseum at the time, felt the same
as the NBC Producer (assumed) exclaimed, after hopping over the infield wall
near the Start/Finish Line, at the end of this shoot, "That was awesome!"
which could also be heard bouncing off of the empty stadium seats - pretty
cool moment.
Finished NBC Promotion >>>
Saturday was a day of testing the new Next Gen platform of this unique
racing track and surface (which is scheduled to be torn up and removed the
very next week).
UPDATE - Just One Week Later Feb, 12, 2022 >>>
Before the seriousness of the day, however, where the Next Gen race cars
take to the track in a more serious posture - testing and timing - Joey
"GoGo" Logano had a very important date for a photo opportunity to promote
his last year liveried Generation 6 Hot Wheels car while standing in front
of Lightning McQueen placed in a Cars backdrop set in the fan appreciation
area, on the grass, just outside of the Peristyle End of the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum.
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| Caption on this captured META/FB posting: Joey Logano - February 5 at 2:53 PM · "GoGo Logano and Lightning McQueen photo op at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum" - Shell Motorsport - Pennzoil - Team Penske - Disney Pixar |
On Saturday (Feb. 5th, 2022), after a series of practice sessions, a timing
trial on an each-by-each basis will be run in order to establish the
groupings of the Qualifications Heat format race sessions to be run on
Sunday before the main heat event of 150 Laps - with a break at 75 Laps to
allow for team assessments, adjustment for a final 75 Lap run to a Checkered
Flag.
To be clear, Joey didn't capture every important point-of-order in an event
that was compressed on the playing surface (some have said that this was
like taking a size 14 foot and trying to fit it into a size 6 shoe) but
intentionally set to grab the attention of the unindoctrinated through
hosting this 43 year annual Daytona based showcase, non-points paying, team
and equipment shake-down, tradition known as The Clash at one of the most
important media and communications centers in the world, one-week before the
56th NFL Super Bowl - BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum in Los Angeles.
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| Image Source Credit: Jay Wells via Racing Junk (2015) |
This excerpted and edited from Racing Junk -
When NASCAR secured CBS Television as a strategic broadcasting partner
in 1979, the agreement included the inaugural Busch Clash which featured
the largest purse per mile event in the history of the sport. The winner
of the race would take home $50,000 for 50 miles (or 20 laps) of
racing.
The clash was the brainchild of Busch Beer brand manager, Monty
Roberts, who pronounced Busch the “Official Beer of NASCAR” in 1979 and
sponsored car owner Junior Johnson and driver, Cale Yarborough.
Roberts wanted to showcase the competitive aspects of stock car racing,
with the Busch brand front and center.
---
The race took just over 15 minutes to complete and Buddy Baker averaged
a rocket-like 194.384 mph in the caution-free event, banking a cool
$50,000 to the Harry Ranier-owned team out of Charlotte, N.C.
ENDS - (reference here)
So, when this first started, it was thought that, wouldn't it be fun and
promotional to hold a race featuring just the drivers and teams that won
pole positions during the previous 1978 season. We will schedule a 50 mile
(basically a 20 Lap sprint on the banked curves of the 2,5 mile Daytona
International Raceway) challenge with a $50,000 purse for the winner at the
beginning of the season before the Daytona 500.
The fastest single lap that set the mark during the shake-down practice
sessions run as the very first time all teams and drivers could take to this
temporary racing surface transforming the football field during the previous
month so this 1/4 mile oval motorsports racing event could take place -
Chase Elliott 13.455 seconds (66.890 mph) in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports
Chevrolet.
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| Phone image grabbed from FS2 broadcast of the initial practice sessions. Image Credit Edmund Jenks (2022) |
This beat out the time set later, under cooler conditions, in the each-by
each time trials headed by Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
Toyota. Busch turned a lap in 13.745 seconds (65.489 mph) on Saturday at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to pace single-car qualifying for Sunday’s
Busch Light Clash At The Coliseum.
The fastest time set throughout the entire event was set by Joey Logano, posted within the 150 Lap race, at
13.336 seconds (67.487 mph) ... Ka-Chow!
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| Joey Logano as he enters this promotional 150 Lap Next Gen chariot heat race from the Coliseum's famed Peristyle End under the Olympic Flame torch. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2022) |
Joey Logano has also set the distinction with this win that all two major
racing events sanctioned by operations owned by NASCAR - IMSA Sportscar
Championship's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and the NASCAR Cup Series
Championship's BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum - were won by owners and
teams influenced and/or staffed by competitors of INDYCAR Series - a Roger
Penske headed enterprise.
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| GoGo Logano performs a back straight-away burn-out in front of his team assembled in the infield of this "one-of" quarter mile race track on the floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to celebrate his win over Kyle Busch in the BUSCH Light Clash At The Coliseum. Image Credit: KK Garcia (2022) |
IMSA Sportscar Championship's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona held just the
weekend before, GREEN GREEN GREEN on January 29th, 2022, was won by Meyer
Shank Racing (the INDYCAR racing team that won last year's INDY500 - Helio
Castroneves' 4th title) fielding an Acura originally fielded for competition
by Team Penske (2017) and driven by two drivers originally associated with
Team Penske - INDY 500 Champions Helio Castroneves (4-titles) and Simon
Pagenaud (one title and INDYCAR 2016 Series Champion).
The Team Penske influence owned this NASCAR experiment in attention and
introduction to the Next Gen, 7th generation NASCAR racing platform. From
the late "The Party Doesn't Start Till We Arrive" horn honk entry into the
load-in for staging and pits, to race end combined with Ford visit at Jay
Leno's Garage and Mattel's Hot Wheels public relations events along the way
- this edition of the BUSCH Clash was a GoGo Logano show all the way.
... notes from
The EDJE
FEATURED ARTICLE >>>
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| See Restored Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Floor HERE |
TAGS:
NASCAR, BUSCH Light, The Clash, Los Angeles, Memorial Coliseum, one-of,
Shell Motorsport, Pennzoil, Team Penske, Disney Pixar, Lightning
McQueen, Jay Leno, Joey Logano, The EDJE
