Weekend schedule and format for the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum
This weekend, NASCAR heads to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to kick off the 2023 season with The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.
It will be a star-studded event to kick off NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season. Actor Rob Lowe will be there as Grand Marshal to start the race giving the order “Drivers, start your engines”. Caleb Williams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner, will serve as the honorary starter with entertainment provided by Cypress Hill and Wiz Khalifa.
The entry list for the exhibition race will consist of 23 drivers from the NASCAR Cup Series Charter teams. Four additional drivers from Open teams will also compete to make up the 27-car field.
Eligible drivers will hit the track Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET for practice. They will be divided into three groups and each group will have three training sessions.
Single-car, single-round qualifying will follow practice at 8 p.m. ET. There will be four 25-lap elimination races (only green flag laps will count).
Each driver will have a warm-up lap and two timed laps. The order of qualification will be based on the 2022 Cup Series owners’ points ranking, from lowest to highest. The fastest qualifier will start on pole for round 1, the second fastest will take pole for round 2, etc.
The top five from each of the four elimination races will automatically transfer to the Clash (20 drivers).
The remaining drivers who finished outside the top five in their qualifying race will advance to the 50 last chance qualifying laps.
The first last chance qualifier will be made up of the drivers who finished sixth-10th in rounds 1 and 3. The last last chance qualifier will be made up of the drivers who finished sixth-10th in rounds 2 and 4.
The top three drivers from each of the Last Chance Qualifying Races will advance to participate in the Clash (6 drivers).
The last spot (27th) will be awarded to the driver who finished highest in the 2022 season points standings but did not qualify for a starting position in the Clash.
Saturday February 4 (All events on FS1/MRN/SiriusXM)
6 p.m.: Training (Groups 1, 2, 3) Three timed sessions per Group
8:30 p.m.: Qualifications (Single vehicle/Three laps all positions)
Sunday, February 5 (All events on FOX/MRN/SiriusXM)
5 p.m.: Qualifying round 1
5:15 p.m.: Qualifying round 2
5:30 p.m.: Qualifying round 3
5:45 p.m.: Qualifying round 4
6:10 p.m.: Last Chance Qualifying – Race 1
6:35 p.m.: Last chance qualifying – Race 2
7:05 p.m.: Pre-race concert
7:50 p.m.: Presentation of the pilots
8 p.m.: Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum
*All times are Eastern
List of entries
Entry-List-busch-clash-entry