LA Clash Review, Auto Club Not Returning in 2024, and More | Chasing The Cup S2:E2

In this episode of Chase Beans Look Up, the host reviews the Bushlight Clash and discusses the Auto Club renovation. The Coliseum results are shared, with Martin Truex Jr. winning. The first half of the race was good, but the second half was messy due to numerous cautions. The host suggests having a smaller field for future Clashes. The host criticizes Fox's coverage, highlighting awkward moments with Gwen Stefani and a poor starting lineup announcement. Fox also faces issues with quality control. News announcements include Jimmy Johnson's plans to race the Chicago Street Course, Kevin Harvick joining Fox Sports, and NASCAR's partnership with Ally and Butch Vodka. The host suggests stadium racing for the Clash and discusses the possibility of moving it from LA. The episode concludes with an update on Auto Club's renovation, stating that the track will not be on the Cup schedule in 2024 due to ongoing work. The host suggests potential replacements for the race. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chase Beans Look Up. I'm your host Will England and in this episode I'm going to be reviewing the Bushlight Clash. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to go over a big update about the Auto Club renovation that was released over the weekend. But first, let's take a look at the results from the Coliseum. After not winning a single race last year, Martin Chereps Jr. starts the season off with a bang with a Clash win by beating out Austin Dillon who finishes runner up. His teammate Kyle Bush finishes third, Alex Bowman finishes fourth, Kyle Larson finishes fifth, Tyler Rick finishes sixth, Ryan Preece finishes seventh, Ross Chastain finishes eighth, Denny Hamlin finishes ninth, and William Byron rounds out the top ten. And so the first half of the race was pretty good. Lots of passing going on, lots of side-by-side racing, it was pretty good. But then after the halftime break, things got messy. A lot of people were running into each other, causing major stack-ups, and it was just prolonged thanks to the no-caution policy. All the laps needed to be ran under green, and because of all those cautions, it extended the length of the race by a lot. I believe by an extra 30 plus minutes. And in my opinion, I believe it was because of the size of the field. There were 27 cars in the field for this race, and in my opinion, it was way too much. Because for a quarter-mile track, 27 cars is way too much, especially with how tight the place is, and the fact that none of the big names missed the show besides Brad Keselowski. So next time, we need to have a smaller field for the Clash. And also, Fox is not off with a good start for the season, and they're making the same mistakes that they made last year. The first mistake was when one of the Fox producers decided to say, hey, let's put Gwen Stefani in the booth for the final laps for that last LCQ, and that led to some very awkward moments. Especially with those stories about Clint Boyer being drunk, and apparently Clint Boyer sniffing Gwen Stefani. That is just weird. I don't know whose idea that was, but that was a terrible idea. Another terrible idea was having that dude who's starring in Animal Control on Fox to do the starting lineup. I mean, that was awful. He did a terrible job. I don't know whose idea that was, but they should be fired for that. Both that and Gwen Stefani? That was just horrible. Of course, Fox seems to also have issues with quality control. It started with practice with the microphones on the 2311 cars, as well as other graphical glitches, especially at the end of the race. That is just terrible. Fox needs to get their quality under control, and they also need to stop with these terrible ideas. People do not like Fox for this reason. They need to revamp their coverage if they want to stay. I know Fox is dedicated to the sport more than NBC, but Fox, you need to fix your coverage if you want to stay, because NASCAR might boot you if they find a better deal because of how your coverage has been the past couple of years. And so overall, it's kind of a half and half race. The first half was really good, but the second half was just too messy. But in my opinion, it was still better than the last clashes at Daytona, which were just wreck fests or boring snooze fests. So I think stadium racing needs to be the focus of the clash, in my opinion. But is it time to move away from LA and try something else? I'm not sure. It's all going to be according to what the figures are. If this race was a bigger success than last year, then let's keep going. But if not, I think it's time for a little shake up and move to somewhere else. There's plenty of other stadiums that would happily have the clash. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. There were a couple of announcements that were made during Fox's pre-race. The first is that Jimmy Johnson is planning to run the Chicago Street Course race on the July 4th weekend. And there's also a possibility of a chance that he may run Bristol Dirt and some other races that he's looking at on the calendar. But we'll see what he chooses once he fills up his schedule. Next Kevin Harvick has made it official. Next we know what Kevin Harvick's future is going to be after he leaves the driver's seat. And that is that Kevin Harvick will join Fox Sports and he'll join the booth with Mike Joy and Clint Boyer starting in 2024. NASCAR and Ally have announced an official partnership, becoming the official consumer bank of NASCAR and NASCAR-owned tracks. Butch Vodka will be sponsoring NBN Motorsports in multiple races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Monster Energy will be the majority sponsor for Ty Gibbs this year in the 54. Austin Dillon will run the Xfinity Race at Auto Club for Koleg Racing in the 10. Sammy Smith will make his NASCAR Truck Series debut for Tricon Garage at Daytona. General admission tickets are now on sale for the Chicago Street Race weekend. Jade Buford will run a second car for Big Machine Racing at Daytona. Kyle Sieg will run full-time in the Xfinity Series with RSS Racing. Celsius has expanded their partnership with Koleg Racing. And they have signed on for a multi-race agreement with the team's two full-time Cup Series entries. Fire Department Coffee will be sponsoring Cazgrala in 10 Xfinity Races. Connor Mossack will be running three Xfinity Races with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2023. CHI will be sponsoring Kyle Busch in multiple races including the Daytona 500. They sponsored Reddick last year. And they will continue their partnership with RCR with Kyle Busch. Trekkouse Racing will preserve Ross Chastain's Martinsville car, the car that rode the wall to get into the championship for last year. Joe Graff Jr. will be running five Xfinity Races for Joe Gibbs Racing this year in the number 19. Derek Cross will be joining Young's Motorsports to run at Daytona in the Truck Series. Critical Path Security has joined Ryan Vargas for the Xfinity Race at Daytona as a primary sponsor. Advent Health has returned to Trekkouse Racing to sponsor Ross Chastain in the number 1. Sunseekers Resort will serve as a multiple-race sponsor for Noah Gregson this year. Interstate Batteries has expanded their partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing and will sponsor all four cars. Haley Deegan, Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, and Ryan Newman will compete full-time in the XRX Series. Parma Lee will perform a pre-race concert at Talladega. Sunny D will be sponsoring Kevin Harvick in two races and will also sponsor Riley Herbst in his Daytona 500 debut. Derrick Bentley will be performing the pre-race concert for the Daytona 500. Kings of Lion extends its partnership with RFK and will sponsor Brad Keselowski for nine races. And finally, NASCAR has announced some rule changes for 2023. There will no longer be stage racing at road courses except for standalone road course events for the Xfinity and Truck Series and that's probably because the Cup Pit crews will be at a different racetrack for the weekend. Also, NASCAR has banned the hail melon and any wall riding will lead to a timed penalty. NASCAR has also expanded the list of tracks where wet weather equipment can be used. The list has expanded to now the LA Memorial Coliseum, the Martinsville Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Richmond Raceway, the Milwaukee Mile, and IRP. And so that's it for this week's news. Now let's take a look at the update that was announced over the weekend about Auto Club's renovation to a half-mile short track. Over the weekend, Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen has announced that Auto Club will not return to the Cup's schedule in 2024 because they'll be still working on the conversion to a half-mile short track. This is what he said, Unfortunately, even with the most aggressive timeline, we will not race in 2024 on the new track. The timeline beyond that still has to be determined. There are just milestones we need to get through, not the least of which is the design of the track. We're still working on that. There are a lot of iterations we're still designing, both on and off the track, so now the question is, what's going to replace it? In my opinion, there are three options. The first, you keep the date where it is, and you move it to a track somewhere in the Sunshine Belt, where it's warm in the winter. Second, you stay in California, but you go to a different racetrack that can handle the Cup Series. And finally, you move Sonoma to that date, and you move the Auto Club date to the summer, where the replacement track will take its place in the summer, and it pretty much can be anywhere. So, the first and most likely option is keeping the date where it is, but in a different state. And in my opinion, the most likely option is going to be the return of the Daytona road course, because that's what happened last time, when the Auto Club Speedway race was cancelled because of the strict COVID policy set by the worst governor in U.S. history, Gavin Newsom. And last time, it was pretty successful. A lot of people tuned in, and the racing was pretty good with the Gen 6 car. So, I think this would be a safe bet for the Cup Series to do, and they can make it into a big spectacle like last time. The next most likely, in my opinion, is moving Sonoma to that date, and having the Auto Club date moved to the summer, where another race will replace it, and the replacement can be pretty much any track. And right now, the most likely that could take that spot, in my opinion, is Rockingham, because Rockingham has had some talks with NASCAR, and in my opinion, they could try to have a one-year comeback for the Cup Series. Not sure how likely it is, but in my opinion, they have a good shot, thanks to this announcement. There are also some other tracks that could take that spot, like, say, Road America. Maybe NASCAR brings back Chicagoland, because that's a track they own. Or maybe they try something new with that summer date, but we'll have to see if they want to try to do something. And finally, the third most likely, in my opinion, is keeping the race in California, but at a different racetrack. And this is the least likely, because there is not many racetracks that can handle the Cup Series in California. There are two options on the West Coast that I consider, one in California and one not in California, one of them being Portland, but the only California option that I can think of is Laguna Seca. And in my opinion, it would be very cool to see Laguna Seca return to the NASCAR schedule for the first time in decades, because Laguna Seca is a very iconic racetrack, because of its appearances in major films. And it fits that California date really nice. But there's a problem with that, and that's because of the surrounding community. Because of the local housing, they can only race on approved dates set by the community. And I'm not sure if late February would be one of those dates, and we probably would need to use those mufflers. But in my opinion, it will be possible. But we'll see what happens. And right now, there is a lot of speculation that NASCAR might promote the Clash to a points race to replace Autoclub. And in my opinion, I don't think that's gonna happen, especially with how we saw 27 cars raced. There's no way you'd be able to fit 36 cars, because they all need to make the field thanks to the charter system. It probably could work without the charter system, but with the modern charter system, all charter cars are required to race. And there's no way that this would work with the current charter system. And although there's a lot of people speculating about it, I don't think it's gonna be a possibility. There's just no way. And there's a lot of people also thinking that some of the other local short tracks around the area could have it, but I don't think any of those places could hold it because those tracks can't sustain a cup date because a lot of people are wanting Irwindale, but Irwindale's in financial trouble and they can only hold 6,000 people. So there's no way. But we'll see what happens. NASCAR still needs to figure that out. And they'll probably find something, whether it be the Daytona road course, which is probably the most likely, bringing back Rockingham, going back to Chicagoland, returning to Laguna Seca. There's just a lot of stuff that needs to be dealt with. And we'll see what happens when NASCAR finalizes their 2024 schedule. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. And there's no races this weekend because this weekend is the big game and I can't refer it to its real name because of copyright. And so that's basically it for this week. Next week will be the Daytona 500 special. Until then, I'll see you next week.