‘Unprecedented’ choice to relocation up the Clash showed to be the right one

LOS ANGELES — NASCAR has a policy that it won’t relocation a Cup race more than an hour earlier than setup on the ticket and it needto offer 24 hours notification to do so.

NASCAR tossed that policy out the window Saturday when it revealed it would relocation its exhibit Clash from Sunday to late Saturday afternoon. The statement offered less than 6 hours notification of the green flag.

NASCAR made the choice as a unsafe storm system was forecasted to hit the Los Angeles location Sunday and last till Tuesday or Wednesday.

On a regular race weekend, NASCAR mostlikely would have waited upuntil Wednesday and raced. It hasactually done that formerly.

[Read more: NASCAR takeaways: Late miscue by Ty Gibbs opens door for Denny Hamlin at the Clash]

But there was absolutelynothing regular about the Clash, which is carriedout on a short-lived asphalt surfacearea laid atop the football field at the renowned Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Staying a coupleof additional days would haveactually suggested NASCAR would have had to lease the Coliseum for additional days, plus invest considerable dollars on additional security as well as the tear-down employees for extra time, not to reference keeping its authorities and other employees there.

The Clash is NASCAR’s worst-paying occasion with a overall handbag of simply $2.21 million to the 36 groups completing. That’s an average of $61,388 per group. Some mostlikely were losing cash on the occasion and including travel expenses would haveactually been another punch.

NASCAR, its production arm and tv partners mostlikely would have had difficulty staying for the occasion and getting all the devices throughout the nation for Daytona, where certifying is set for Dec. 14 for the Daytona 500.

That may appear like a lot of time to move, however the footprint to televise the Daytona 500 is enormous and not something they would desire to rush in order to get in an exhibit occasion.

If the race didn’t takeplace, NASCAR mostlikely wouldn’t haveactually gotten the tv cash and more than mostlikely the groups wouldn’t haveactually gotten paid, including insult to injury.

So when dealingwith possibly losing anumberof million in earnings if the race neverever occurred versus losing numerous million in ticket refunds (or credits to future occasions) for all those who had tickets (as well as product sales), NASCAR chose to at least get in the occasion.

NASCAR dealtwith a no-win scenario as the race is created to produce interest going into the season. Doing it on a weekday attempting to evade remaining rain mostlikely wouldn’t haveactually achieved that accomplishment.

Doing it at least on a Saturday night — even on brief notification — turned into the right choice as the rains began a couple of hours after the conclusion on Saturday.

So would NASCAR do it onceagain?

“I’m not going to hypothesize on it,” NASCAR Chief Operations Officer Steve O’Donnell stated. “What we’re doing right now is extraordinary in the finest interest for the fans. It’s going to be an hassle, definitely, for those who had tickets and were truly looking forward to this,

“We’re going to be reaching out to every single fan to see what we can do to make it great on their end. But this was our finest alternative for us to at least see some racing, get individuals tuning in … and those who were currently coming out.”

O’Donnell stated they didn’t start thinkingabout the relocation to Saturday upuntil late Friday night. They had to coordinate with broadcast partner FOX, public security authorities, and Coliseum operations. They had currently designated Saturday, which was expected to be a practice and certifying day, as a totallyfree occasion for fans and they opened an additional gate. A crowd of anumberof thousand gothere for the totallyfree occasion.

“It definitely injures — economically, it’s not going to be excellent, ideal?” O’Donnell stated. “Nor will it be from a ranking perspective in terms of what might haveactually been [Sunday night], however at the end of the day, it’s what’s the right thing to do? What’s the right thing to do is keep everybody safe. And this is the right choice.”

The choice was praised by the market as they were able to get back to North Carolina. With numerous groups getting some body panels, parts and pieces simply justrecently for Daytona, they had work to surface up before leaving next week.

Drivers were shocked that NASCAR went off their policy, where contingency strategies mainly focus on the days after the occasion, not previously.

“It’s one of the most rational choices we’ve made as an market, possibly ever, so I value it,” stated Hendrick Motorsports motorist Chase Elliott. “I understand all the rest of the market workers values simply the desire to be able to make a modification like that and to be sincere with you, I’m thinking doing an occasion like this on Saturday night is a muchbetter fit for it anyhow.”

The winner, Denny Hamlin, clearly left delighted.

“We must thinkabout tonight a success, just because if it didn’t takeplace thisevening, I simply didn’t think it was going to occur at all,” Hamlin stated.

“While there would be some individuals that were upset about not being able to usage their ticket for [Sunday], they weren’t going to usage it Monday, either, and Tuesday I’m not sure was an alternative. This thing was simply going to snowball. … Tonight was the just choice to get this thing in, and I’m pleased that NASCAR made extraordinary modifications to make sure that the fans at least saw a race.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has invested years covering motorsports, consistingof over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene publication and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.