{"id":7522,"date":"2020-02-08T00:11:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T05:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonmotorsport.com\/?p=7522"},"modified":"2022-07-22T12:11:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:11:09","slug":"the-offseason-comes-to-an-end-with-sundays-busch-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2020\/02\/08\/the-offseason-comes-to-an-end-with-sundays-busch-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"The Offseason comes to an end with Sunday’s Busch Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newly minted NASCAR Cup Series, sans title sponsor, will see its first action of the year with 18 drivers vying for the title of Busch Clash champion.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For fans of stock car racing, the offseason was way too long. For drivers, there is always the anticipation of Daytona Speedweeks<\/strong> all winter long. Who can complain about going to Florida in February?<\/p>\n

That anticipation becomes a reality on Sunday, well, at least for 18 drivers.
\nThe opening race of the 2020 season kicks off at 3:00 p.m. (TV: Fox Sports 1\/Fox Sports app) with the Busch Clash<\/strong>, a non-points competition that some refer to as \u201ccheckers or wreckers.\u201d It\u2019s an all-out war to see who can get to the finish line first. Nothing else matters because no one will remember those who finished behind the victor.<\/p>\n

The Busch Clash is a two-segment battle of wits and will (and hopefully a clean car at the end) starting with 25 laps followed by 50 more for a total of 187.5-miles. There is a mix of young and those long in the tooth (by NASCAR standards) when the green flag drops. Unlike the Daytona 500, where you try to avoid \u201cthe big one,\u201d the 18-car field is more like, \u201cjust don\u2019t hit anyone or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are the drivers for the 2020 Busch Clash and how they qualified for the race, according to NASCAR<\/a>. Twenty drivers were eligible, but 18 will take the green flag. Daniel Suarez recently signed with a new team and is concentrating on the 500. Daniel Hemric will be racing in the Xfinity Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aric Almirola (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nRyan Blaney (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nAlex Bowman (former Daytona 500 pole winner)
\nClint Bowyer (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nKyle Busch (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nKurt Busch (former Clash winner)
\nWilliam Byron (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nAustin Dillon (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nChase Elliott (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nDenny Hamlin (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nKevin Harvick (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nDaniel Hemric (2019 Busch Pole Award) *Will not race
\nJimmie Johnson (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nErik Jones (2019 Cup Series playoff driver)
\nBrad Keselowski (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nKyle Larson (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nJoey Logano (2019 Busch Pole Award)
\nRyan Newman (former Daytona 500 winner)
\nDaniel Suarez (2019 Busch Pole Award) *Will not race
\nMartin Truex Jr. (former Daytona 500 pole winner)<\/p>\n

WEATHER FORECAST:<\/strong>
\nMother Nature is on the side of drivers on Sunday with a high of 70. A quick warmup from lows in the 50s, the World Center of Racing should be clean and green for the afternoon festivities.<\/p>\n

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:<\/strong>
\nAt 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, there will be a random drawing at the Daytona Fan Zone to determine starting positions.<\/p>\n

TRACK INFO:<\/strong>
\nLocation: Daytona Beach, FL
\nCapacity: 101,000
\nStatistics: 2.5-mile tri-oval<\/p>\n

PREDICTION:<\/strong>
\nKyle Busch<\/strong><\/em> (and not because the race name is the same as his)
\nThe Busch Clash is one of the hardest races to predict. You can throw experience out the passenger window as luck can play as big a part in who wins as much as ability. Seven drivers have combined for 12 trips to the winner\u2019s circle, so it\u2019s not like they don\u2019t know how to get there. All that said, Busch is arguably the best and most talented driver in the field, and he is<\/em> coming off his second Cup championship. Look for him to take home his second Clash title.<\/p>\n

LONGSHOT:<\/strong>
\nJimmie Johnson<\/strong><\/em>
\nLet\u2019s face it; he needs to get off to a great start. 2020 will be his final full-time season and a good showing at Daytona, both in the Clash and 500, could be a harbinger of what is to come.<\/p>\n

MORE ON THE CLASH:
\nWill Ford crash the Busch Clash with a win at Daytona?<\/a><\/p>\n

Toyota hopes to cash in at the Busch Clash\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

You can follow Ted Fleming on Twitter @TedFleming13<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The newly minted NASCAR Cup Series, sans title sponsor, will see its first action of the year with 18 drivers vying for the title of Busch Clash champion. For fans of stock car racing, the offseason was way too long. For drivers, there is always the anticipation of Daytona Speedweeks all winter long. Who can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3350,"featured_media":3106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1581107160","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"Busch Clash at Daytona","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"612","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1664],"tags":[107,564,316,160,1273,61,348,429,148,243,200,242,158,353,261,62,159,371,775,139,60],"class_list":["post-7522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-nascar-cup-series","tag-alex-bowman","tag-aric-almirola","tag-austin-dillon","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-busch-clash","tag-chase-elliott","tag-clint-bowyer","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-erik-jones","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-joey-logano","tag-kevin-harvick","tag-kurt-busch","tag-kyle-busch","tag-kyle-larson","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-ryan-newman","tag-william-byron"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}