The Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was a tale of two halves: the first half was fairly clean, while the second looked more like the Busch Light Crash. Sixteen cautions were flown with all but three coming in the race’s second half, many of which were as drivers increased their aggressiveness despite the quarter-mile’s tight confines.

Martin Truex Jr., who last won a NASCAR Cup Series race in September 2021, took advantage of Ryan Preece‘s fuel pump failure to assume the lead on lap 126. He staved off advances from Bubba Wallace and the Richard Childress Racing duo of Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick to snap his dry spell, even if in an exhibition.

“Austin and Kyle raced clean, and for the most part I’ve never had really any big issues with those guys,” said Truex. “You come to a track like this, it’s pretty easy to just blow the corner and knock the guy out of the way in front of you. It’s just easy to do.

“Thankfully, they didn’t do that. They gave me a lap to get going, and obviously we were fast enough to drive away from them.”

Wallace probably disagreed with Truex’s sentiments. Despite leading fifty-nine laps including at the halfway break, he was spun by Dillon with seven laps remaining which relegated him to twenty-second; Wallace indirectly called out Dillon on Twitter by writing, “W3ll that was fun, till it wasn’t.” Dillon and Busch, his new team-mate after previously working alongside Truex at Joe Gibbs Racing, finished second and third to join Truex on a special podium created specifically for the Clash.

“Bubba knocked me through the corner,” Dillon explained. “I was going to hit him back, didn’t mean to turn him like that, but when it gets down to the end, I think everybody knows what’s going on, and that’s what you see at places like this and Bowman Gray Stadium.”

Preece and Wallace were not the only lap leaders to experience misfortune. Aric Almirola started on the pole after winning Heat #1, but faded after accidentally selecting the disadvantageous outside lane on the choose cone and never recovered. Denny Hamlin salvaged a ninth-place finish after a tumultuous day in which he was knocked out of the lead by his 23XI Racing employee Wallace, spun by 2022 rival Ross Chastain on lap 74, and was turned again by William Byron—who tangled with Hamlin at Texas last year—during the cooldown lap.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	150	Running
2	10	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
3	6	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
4	5	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
5	14	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
6	11	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	150	Running
7	16	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	150	Running
8	12	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	150	Running
9	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	150	Running
10	4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
11	9	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
12	18	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	150	Running
13	23	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	150	Running
14	13	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	150	Running
15	7	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	150	Running
16	17	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	150	Running
17	15	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	150	Running
18	1	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	150	Running
19	19	99	Daniel Suarez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	150	Running
20	26	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	150	Running
21	22	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	150	Running
22	8	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	150	Running
23	25	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	140	Fuel
24	21	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	137	Fuel
25	27	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	106	Engine
26	24	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	81	Suspension
27	20	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	16	Suspension

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year