The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum welcomed NASCAR for the first time

Engines roaring, tires skidding and a flock of USC students screaming at the sight of Pitbull filled up the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum on Sunday.

The Coliseum, home to USC football, hosted a NASCAR race for the first time in history. Officials said that 70% of the nearly 60,000 attendees were first-time NASCAR ticket buyers. NASCAR aimed to expand its audience to the West Coast with a widely L.A.-based audience.

Emily Hansen, a junior studying international relations and global business, compared the hype around the event to that of a USC football game. She even said the race turned her into a NASCAR fan.

“It was nice to get that game day feeling again,” Hansen said. “People were tailgating beforehand and the overall atmosphere was really similar to game days.”

The unique nature of the race drew some students who were unfamiliar with NASCAR culture.

“I heard about NASCAR in movies and TV and to have something that doesn’t happen often in cities happen so close to me sounded really cool,” Aayush Singhania, a senior studying business administration, said.

Other students said they attended out of curiosity surrounding the setup.

“I have actually been to a NASCAR race once in 2014, but this time I was really curious about how the track was built inside the Coliseum,” Akash Shetty, a freshman studying business administration, said. “It was a nice change of pace from other sporting events.”

The NASCAR race, like other athletic events at USC, was open to full capacity with masking and vaccination protocols. But some students said that the protocols were not followed once inside the stadium. According to Shetty, this was one of the “weaknesses” of the event.