By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – NASCAR on Tuesday started building a temporary asphalt track inside LA Memorial Coliseum, the first time it has constructed such a race course, ahead of an exhibition race on Feb. 6.
The “Clash at the Coliseum” will see the sport’s top drivers compete on a quarter-mile track inside the stadium in downtown Los Angeles.
“Compared to a lot of the existing tracks on the club circuit, this track is going to be so unique,” NASCAR President of Design and Development Derek Muldowney told Reuters.
The short and flat track “means that the cars are going to be running very close together. And it means a lot of the passing is going to take place under bumping, grinding kind of situations,” Muldowney said.
Southern California racing fans will get to see NASCAR’s Next Gen car models, which will be used in Cup Series competitions next year.
If successful, NASCAR could host more similar events.
Two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip said the stadium location was significant because it’s an experiment for NASCAR. “If this event goes well, you could see pop-up racetracks in a lot of big cities around America and NASCAR being the center of the stage,” he said.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
