Be it by authenticity or design, NASCAR and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum have heard the discourse from the past two days and announced on Thursday night that they would open the doors to fans on the Saturday night of the Busch Clash.
Most notably, access will be free of charge.
It created quite a stir this week when the weekend schedule for the third-year event came out and included moving the heat races to the night before the main event with no planned fan access. NASCAR had added a Mexico Series race to the Sunday card but the heat races were some of the most action packed of this event over its first two years.
And, an event designed to reach new demographics and create new fans suddenly decided to close itself off to that potential.
Ben Kennedy, the grandson of league founder Bill France Sr., who is now serving as senior vice president of racing development and strategy revealed the decision in a Thursday night social media clip.
“Hey race fans, we’ve heard you loud and clear,” Kennedy said. “I am happy to announce that on Saturday, February 3 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, we’re going to be opening our gates free to the public for practice, qualifying and heat races for the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Cup Series.
“That is regardless of if you have a ticket to Sunday or not. If you’re thinking about coming out on Sunday, but don’t have a ticket yet, you can go to NASCARClash.com. We’ll have our NASCAR Mexico Series coming to the first time to the LA Coliseum, the last chance race for our NASCAR Cup Series and out headliner, the Busch Clash.”
The event also features pre-race and mid-race concerts by Dillon Francis and Machine Gun Kelly.
For those unable to attend, the Saturday portion of the Busch Clash airs live on FS1. The Mexico Series race on Sunday will air live on FS1 at 4:30 ET. The Cup Series main event is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. on FOX.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.