“A Win-Win for Everybody”: Chase Elliott & Denny Hamlin Back NASCAR’s Quick Thinking

NASCAR moved the first race of the year, The Clash, to Saturday night due to an ensuing rain forecast and possible heavy floods to shroud the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday. And all of that decision-making happened within hours. Needless to say, drivers like Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin were impressed at how prompt NASCAR was to do what was needed.

“It’s one of the most logical decisions we’ve made as an industry potentially ever,” said the 2020 Cup Series champion. “So I appreciate it. Just the willingness to be able to make a change like that and to be honest with you, doing an event like this on Saturday night is a better fit for it anyways, I think it is a win-win for everybody.”

Denny Hamlin too applauded the abrupt decision, tagging NASCAR on X, calling it a “W” (win) for the entire sport.

Fans rally behind NASCAR’s COO to shower their appreciation

NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve O’Donnell, explained that although not ideal, the sanctioning body had to decide for the safety of the fans and also, everyone else involved in the event. “Certainly not ideal, but as the weather forecast continued to worsen, the public safety concerns, a lot of things that were going around, there’s a lot of different events going on in the community as well, we started to review Saturday options,” he told Fox Sports.

“We’re really glad the Coliseum agreed to even make this a possibility. It’s the best of what is really a tough situation for the fans and this racing community, but we felt this was the best option to keep everybody safe and get both events in,” he added. On that note, the fans were impressed at NASCAR’s move to keep its viewers safe.

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NASCAR has announced that they will contact the ticket-holders for Sunday’s race and initiate a full refund for prepaid parking.