Martin Truex Jr. is one-for-two when it comes to the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.
His results in the non-points exhibition race — which has been held at L.A. Memorial Coliseum since 2022 — are polar opposites.
The first year, he placed 15th in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after starting 23rd. The following season, Truex started second and muscled his way into victory lane at the end of the 150-lap race.
He’s returning to Southern California for the Feb. 4 event as the defending winner, and that’s a good feeling for the 43-year-old NASCAR Cup Series veteran.
“We went to the Clash in 2022 and we were absolutely awful. It was like, ‘OK, we need to change everything around,’” Truex recalled. “To have the guys come with a new setup and be as good as we were all weekend long, it was a huge boost to start the year.”
In a sense, Truex’s performance at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum the past two years has foreshadowed his upcoming campaigns.
After a dismal placing in 2022, the JGR driver went on to experience a winless season with only four top-five finishes and a 17th-place points result.
On the other hand, his triumph in 2023 led to more success throughout the next 36 races as Truex earned three wins, nine top fives and finished 11th in the standings. He admitted the exhibition race kicked off the No. 19 team’s successful season.
“We knew we were back. We knew we could do it but, until you actually do it, you always have that question in the back of your mind. That weekend answered the question that we could still win races,” Truex explained.
“It really set off our season on a good note, and we looked forward to the weekly grind after that because we knew we had something to run up front and compete for wins each and every week.”
The ensuing comeback that followed the Clash victory convinced Truex to return to JGR for another season.
Last August, he signed a contract extension for 2024.
But despite his recent history at the Coliseum and the 20 years of wisdom he’s accumulated while racing at NASCAR’s highest level, Truex knows Sunday’s race won’t be a walk in the park.
“It’s really difficult to make your car do everything you want it to do. You have to stop and you have to turn and you have to have drive off the corner. It sounds easy, but the place is so small and so flat and these cars don’t want anything to do with a small, flat track. You have to keep the left-front brake from locking up, that’s a big key,” Truex said.
He also believes that a few of the format changes NASCAR introduced for the event this year will benefit him — namely, that practice lap times will determine the starting lineup for the heat races rather than qualifying.
“Last year, we were really fast in practice — I think fastest overall. And then in qualifying, we had to go out after one of those long commercial breaks and the track cooled off and we qualified bad and had to start in a bad spot for our heat race,” Truex explained.
Not that it mattered much, as the next day, Truex led the final 25 laps and collected his first checkered flag of the season.
“Overall, what we learned last year should really be helpful and, hopefully, we can find a little bit more from there and go back it up,” Truex concluded.