After losing the lead early, Denny Hamlin stormed back to win the 2024 Clash at the Coliseum in a two-lap shootout.
The biggest story of the day wasn’t necessarily Hamlin’s win, but the mere fact that the race happened. Originally scheduled for Sunday, NASCAR moved the Clash forward more than 24 hours to avoid tomorrow’s storms, a move which even drivers didn’t expect.
“It was awesome. I was not planning on racing anything other than a heat race today and had no thought that — like running the whole race was actually an option,” Kyle Larson (No. 5) said. “Cliff [Daniels, Larson’s crew chief] had asked me if I had heard the rumors or whatever around 11:30 or so, and that got me excited.”
Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 car, started the race from pole position and lost the lead to Joey Logano (No. 22) on the first lap, but regained it very quickly and controlled the early stages.
The race quickly became processional, with the front of the field largely settling in until Hamlin caught lapped traffic.
Ty Gibbs (No. 54) managed to push past his teammate on lap 50 and quickly opened a gap to second. After losing the lead, Hamlin plummeted, falling all the way to seventh before the first caution of the race came out at lap 70.
With five laps before the halftime break intended for the canceled Machine Gun Kelly concert, the race found its first chaos of the day.
Gibbs was eaten up on the restart, with Logano taking the lead on the inside and Kyle Busch (No. 8) getting around Gibbs on the outside. With only one turn before the end of the first half, John Hunter Nemechek (No. 42) was helped to face the wrong direction, bringing out another caution.
The caution left one more lap on the board before the break. That gave drivers the chance to shake things up a bit more, but Logano was able to keep the lead.
Chaos continued when the race resumed. Logano narrowly kept the lead on the restart before Tyler Reddick (No. 45) accidentally spun his teammate, Bubba Wallace (No. 23). On the following restart, Logano couldn’t keep the lead. Gibbs squeaked ahead before yet another caution flew.
After that restart, Gibbs was electric. He quickly opened up a gap of around half the frontstretch to Logano in second, which was well-timed as it coincided with the longest green flag run of the second half. From the restart on lap 78, the race stayed green until 140.
The restart allowed Hamlin, who had gradually worked his way through the field under green, to pounce on Gibbs, taking the lead with 10 to go. Although he locked his brakes on almost every lap, Hamlin held the lead until Gibbs, the long-time leader, found himself facing the wrong direction after contact from Larson.
“I didn’t know [my brakes were] locking. I could feel it locking up but I didn’t see the smoke or know how bad it was,” Hamlin said. “Once I did it one good time, that was it. I was destined to do it just about every corner unless I really backed up my braking, and then I was going to get run over anyway. I just said, ‘screw it. Hopefully the tire stays together.’”
Hamlin faced immediate pressure from Busch in second and Ryan Blaney (No. 12), who started last after only making the race because he was guaranteed a spot as last year’s champion, in third. Despite his brakes still locking at every opportunity, he managed to hold the two off to win the third rendition of the Clash at the Coliseum.
“I only controlled a couple of the restarts, but obviously I didn’t do a great job because I kept overshooting the corner,” Hamlin said. “The restarts are tough, especially at this track where you have high braking. The second- and third-place car don’t care about your agenda, and they’re just going to run through you and force you up off the bottom, and that’s how most of the passes get made here.”
While it was less of a race of attrition than last year, this year’s Clash still featured copious contact. Blaney credited staying away from the trouble with his last-to-third drive.
“We did a good job all night just kind of staying clean, and our car was fast,” Blaney said. “I think every time I’ve been spun backwards about two or three times, so it’s not nice to have that one at the last one.”
The stands were far emptier tonight than in previous years, but Hamlin said that didn’t sour the event.
“I think we should consider tonight a success, only because if it didn’t happen tonight, I just didn’t think it was going to happen at all,” Hamlin said. “There would be some people that were upset about not being able to use their ticket for tomorrow, they weren’t going to use it Monday, either, and Tuesday I’m not sure was an option.”
Larson agreed.
“Happy that they were able to do that, and obviously I’m sure they take a huge financial hit, NASCAR does, but I think at the same point, the crowd is awesome out there for a spur-of-the-moment race and free admission and all that, so hopefully a lot of these fans who have never been to a race before will now fall in love with the sport and venture out and kind of grow from there. Maybe this could accidentally work out really well for NASCAR.”
NASCAR’s contract with the Coliseum has ended; this race’s future in flux. Auto Club Speedway’s renovation is expected to stretch beyond the 2025 season. It remains to be seen when the sport will return to Southern California. The NASCAR season kicks into gear February 18 with the Daytona 500, its flagship race.