NASCAR aims to attract new audience with Clash at the LA Coliseum
Although Grayson Wimbish is from Richmond, Virginia, and his father grew up two hours away in South Boston — home to NASCAR’s famed Burton family — he said he’s never been to a race before.
Wimbish, a 26-year-old bartender and server who moved to Los Angeles three years ago, said he’s an avid college football fan, but he’s never been to a game in the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, either.
Sunday, he’ll experience multiple firsts.
“This is going to be my first time going to the LA Memorial Coliseum, and it’s going to be to see a NASCAR race,” Wimbish said, laughing. “If you would have told me that when I first moved to L.A., I would’ve been like, ‘What the (heck) are you talking about?’ ”
Wimbish fits the demographic of young city-dweller that NASCAR is aiming to engage this weekend with its highly promoted Clash exhibition race. The event, traditionally held at Daytona International Speedway, will be on a purpose-built, quarter-mile racetrack inside the L.A. Coliseum for the first time.
NASCAR is leasing the historic venue that typically hosts the University of Southern California football team for the two-day event that will feature a format shakeup. There will be heat races, a D.J. performance during caution laps and a halftime show by rapper Ice Cube splitting the 150-lap main event on Sunday as the series aims to attract an L.A. crowd.
“There seems to be a lot of hype around it, given that it’s the week before the Super Bowl,” Wimbish said. “People are definitely talking about it here.”
That hype and exposure are why NASCAR’s chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell said this week that he already considers the event a success.
“The number of celebrities showing up, the enthusiasm and promotion that we’ve seen from Fox for this race, even during NFL broadcasts, it’s been unprecedented,” O’Donnell said. “And it’s been on a level almost equal to the Daytona 500.”
Although the race has yet to run with NASCAR debuting its Next Gen cars that could get shredded before the season officially starts (23 cars make the final race) and the event is costing NASCAR “significantly more” than $1 million, O’Donnell said, executives think the payoff will be worth the steep price.
One of the metrics he pointed to was the demographics of race ticket-buyers, of which 70 percent have never purchased a ticket to a race before, he said. Patrick Rogers, NASCAR’s vice president of marketing, said that NASCAR is able to track ticket-buyers for prior races and compare account information with that used to purchase tickets to the Clash through Ticketmaster. O’Donnell said that NASCAR asked new ticket-buyers for the Clash if they’ve been to NASCAR races in the past.
“(The Clash) is kind of doing what we wanted it to,” Rogers said. “It has piqued the interest of a new fan while also providing something for our core fans, so that’s another success metric checked.”
Wimbish’s story illustrated Rogers’ point about the Clash appealing to old and new fans alike, but he likely went unaccounted for in NASCAR’s polling. Although he’ll be a first-time race attendee, he didn’t purchase his own tickets. Wimbish said that his friend from Virginia, who he described as a “die-hard NASCAR fan,” reached out hoping to strike a deal. His friend bought their tickets and Wimbish offered up a place for him to crash on Sunday night.
“I said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Wimbish said. “ ‘Sounds like a blast.’ ”
That’s how Wimbish will wind up at his first NASCAR race as one of the reportedly 50,000 to 60,000 fans expected to attend. Wimbish said his familiarity with NASCAR is limited (“I know a little bit about the sport, obviously, like Dale Earnhardt, and that’s pretty much the extent of it). He said he is enticed by the policies at NASCAR tracks that typically allow fans to bring their own alcoholic beverages, which won’t be the case for the Clash. Fans will also be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test to enter, in accordance with L.A. County’s health guidelines, and will have to wear masks unless eating or drinking.
So although Wimbish said he’ll aim to have a “quintessential NASCAR experience,” it will be different from many East Coast races in that regard. But he’s likely to return.
“Assuming everyone walks away from the race unscathed and I don’t see something absolutely horrifying,” he said.
NASCAR could return to Downtown L.A. as well. NBC Sports reported Tuesday that the sanctioning body could exercise a contract option to keep the Clash at the Coliseum in 2023 and ‘24. NASCAR could also use its model to expand into markets even farther from its North Carolina home base.
“The idea behind it was, ‘Can you create a model that you could do this somewhere else?’ ” Rogers said. “And that somewhere else could be overseas, if you think about some of these tremendous soccer stadiums, and things of that nature, that you could potentially do stuff like this in. So there are options out there for sure.”
Even if the race turns into a wreck-fest, the hype, exposure and opportunity to test something new will be worth it for NASCAR. It’ll be a new experience for many fans, too.
“I’m excited,” Wimbish said. “I hope I see a show.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
