Truex Jr. wins NASCAR’s sloppy return to Los Angeles Coliseum

Martin Truex Jr. won NASCAR’s return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for its season-opening exhibition race — a sloppy Sunday night extravaganza in which the Wiz Khalifa halftime show might have been the most entertaining part of the event.

Truex took the lead with 25 laps to go in the Busch Light Clash, a 150-lap race that was moved from Daytona International Speedway last year to the Coliseum. NASCAR built a temporary quarter-mile track inside the iconic venue in a bold attempt to try something radically different.

Truex, who contemplated retirement during last year’s winless season, won for the first time since Sept. 11, 2021.

“Last year was a pretty rough season for us with no wins, and to come out here and kick it off this way, really proud of all these guys,” Truex said.

Last year’s race was considered a smashing success based on the new fans drawn to the event. NASCAR knew it was going to be difficult to duplicate the success in its return and the racing Sunday wasn’t great — there were 25 cautions, and laps under yellow didn’t count. There were only five cautions in last year’s race.

“Last year’s show I felt like was relatively clean and good racing, some bumping, some banging, but we could run long stretches of green flag action,” said Kyle Busch. “Today was, I would call it a disaster with the disrespect from everybody of just driving through each other.”