NASCAR has another option for racing in Southern California in the coming years and it is Dodger Stadium according to a report in the Sports Business Journal.
Last month marked the end of a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to host the pre-season Busch Light Clash, and with Auto Club Speedway still partially demolished in advance of an expected eventual renovation into a half-mile short track, the sanctioning body is eyeing ways to remain in the second largest market in the country.
It’s also largely expected that 2024 marked the end of the Clash at the Coliseum as well.
Dodger Stadium first emerged as a potential site for a motorsports race last year when the Formula E electric racing series was reported to have held discussions about such an idea for 2025. At the time, motorsports news site The Race reported that racing team owner Michael Andretti had helped set up the discussions. Andretti’s business partner, Group 1001 President & CEO Dan Towriss, is a former senior executive at Guggenheim, where Dodgers owner Mark Walter serves as CEO of Guggenheim Partners.
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told Forbes: “LA is one of the locations we are looking at, another large U.S. city, around the Dodgers Stadium — around, inside, who knows! But we are excited about the conversations we are having with them.”
Sports Business Journal
Similar to the Formula E conversations, it remains unclear if NASCAR would race inside the stadium as a bullring short track or around it as a street course. It’s also unclear if this concept would be for a preseason Clash or a points race.
If a street course race, it would be similar to the Formula 1 race in Miami near Hard Rock Stadium or even the now canceled IndyCar street course event in Nashville around Nissan Stadium.
The Clash is most expected by those in the industry to be taken to Mexico next year but NASCAR officials did meet with numerous interested promotional parties from around the globe during the week of the Daytona 500.