In an unprecedented move, NASCAR made the decision to move the first (non-points) race of the year to Saturday night due to the looming threat of storms.
The original schedule had practice and qualifying for the Clash occurring Saturday night with the Last Chance Qualifier and feature event taking place Sunday night. However, with a 100% chance of rain in the schedule for Sunday, NASCAR decided to move all on-track action to Saturday. Additionally, NASCAR made entry to the race free and refunded those who had tickets for Sunday.
With all of the moves, qualifying was cancelled and the lineup was set by practice times and 2023 owner points. This put Denny Hamlin on pole with Joey Logano beside him. 2023 Champion Ryan Blaney started the race in the final position.
The race was relatively calm for the first half with Hamlin and Logano trading the lead. On lap 50, Ty Gibbs took the top spot. 20 laps later, the first caution came out for Todd Gilliland who took a spin from 22nd.
Gibbs and Logano led the field to green with Logano taking the early lead. Just three laps later, another caution was flown for John Hunter Nemechek who spun after some contact from Corey LaJoie.
This time, it was Logano and Kyle Busch who started out front. The field made it just one lap before Bubba Wallace took a spin, collecting Alex Bowman. It was back to the familiar duo of Logano and Gibbs for the next restart with Logano holding the lead. Tyler Reddick was charged with a restart violation and forced to start at the rear.
The race remained calm for the next 60 laps until Ross Chastain bounced off the wall in turn 3 and collected Michael McDowell. Gibbs and Logano took the green once again until lap 149 when Gibbs spun out after contact from Kyle Larson.
This time, it was Hamlin and Blaney out front for a shootout to the finish. Hamlin held off the field and claimed the victory while Chastain and Reddick wrecked in turn 2 behind him.
The 2024 NASCAR season officially kicks off on Sunday, February 18th at the Daytona 500.
Featured photo from @NASCAR on Twitter.
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