As NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell addressed the media about the decision to move the Busch Clash main event to Saturday, drivers could be seen behind the scrum giving thumbs up and issuing various signals of approval.
The rain is going to start at some point overnight on Saturday and the deluge will continue for several days, a condition articulated as an ‘atmospheric river’ set to bring historic and ‘life-threatening flooding’ to the greater Los Angeles area over the next several days.
NASCAR consulted with both its television partner, FOX, and the race teams to make the unprecedented decision to move the entire race up a day and to allow free grandstands access to anyone who shows up.
“Everyone was in line with that,” O’Donnell said. “Certainly, not ideal but as the weather forecast continued to worsen, public safety and a lot of the things that were going around, a lot of different events in the community, we started to review Saturday options late last night and this morning.
“It sped up and we applaud the Coliseum for even making this a possibility. It’s the best of what is a really tough situation for the fans and the racing community but felt like this was the best option to keep everyone safe and get both races in.”
The Mexico Series race will now take place after the Cup Series race. The Cup Series content will air on FS1 and the Mexico Series race will air on FS2.
O’Donnell said the teams were ‘very supportive’ if it came down to waiting out the rain but they also wanted NASCAR to explore every option.
“When you look at logistics, the Daytona 500, what is the best thing for the teams as well,” O’Donnell said, “so racing Saturday is helpful to them but we didn’t push it on them.”
What happens if the rain arrives a little earlier than expected?
“We’ll do what we can tomorrow but we’re going to keep public safety in mind first and foremost to make sure the Coliseum can get folks in and out safely,” O’Donnell said.
Could the Clash, since it’s a non-points exhibition, be canceled outright?
“I don’t want to jump ahead but when you start looking ahead towards when you can race, and you start looking at extended forecasts, that’s definitely something we could look at,” O’Donnell said.
Drivers, again, were in complete support of anything that wouldn’t force them to either not race at all or have to wait days to do it.
Denny Hamlin was late arriving so wasn’t privy to any meeting but applauded the outcome.
“I think this is the right move,” Hamlin said. “You risk not running it all and we’ve all come out here and are in a window where we know there will be no rain for the next 12 hours or so. It’s like a deal or no deal and take the bank on this one.”
Kyle Busch was in complete support.
“No question,” said the two-time Cup Series champion. “It’s an unprecedented mark in our sport and I think we’ll all applaud NASCAR and FOX for in giving us a chance to get a race in. I’m not sure we could have gotten a race in before Wednesday or if we would even be here on Wednesday.
“I feel like this is the best chance we had. It was definitely a very good move.”
Defending winner Martin Truex Jr said it ‘was definitely the right move with the weather coming in’ and said he’s excited for Saturday night now.
“NASCAR just let us know what was going on and we go do it,” Truex said of the process.
Christopher Bell ‘thought it was awesome’ for all the reasons expressed before him.
“I think we were all nervous about what the plan was going to be moving forward if we didn’t race today because it doesn’t look good for the next couple of days,” Bell said.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.