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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy doesn’t discount the idea of running the Clash outside the United States in the future.
Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president chief venue and racing innovation officer, said Saturday that he was pleased with the atmosphere at Bowman Gray Stadium for the Clash two weeks ago but noted that running the exhibition event internationally could benefit the sport.
“I think it’s an opportunity, as we think long-term, for us to think about, ‘Hey, does (the Clash) potentially go international?’” Kennedy said at Daytona International Speedway. “Does it rotate? Does it stay domestic?
“I think we’re looking at a number of different options long-term for where that event could go because it is an exhibition race, it is prior to the season, it is an opportunity to promote the season in new and novel and different ways, and I think that’s what we’ve done over the past few years.”
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Kennedy notes that NASCAR has worked to blend old and new with the schedule in recent years. The sport has added events at North Wilkesboro, Bowman Gray and Rockingham, tracks steeped in NASCAR tradition, while also going to new venues, such as the Chicago Street Race, the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the inaugural Cup weekend in Mexico City in June.
As for how holding the Clash internationally could help promote the Daytona 500 and the start of the season, Kennedy said:
“We can have things domestically that we do that celebrate our roots in the regular season that logistically, frankly, makes a lot more sense, and then we can have these new, novel concepts, potentially internationally, prior to our season to be able to not just engage the U.S. market through people watching on television or maybe some of them will want to go and travel, but now for us to engage an international market and have them tune in as well,” he said.
NASCAR states that Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be broadcast to more than 190 different countries and territories in 26 languages and have the potential to reach more than 650 million households.
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Holding the Clash internationally could be easier than having such a race — other than in Mexico or Canada — during the season because of the travel required. The Cup Series is running all but one weekend between Feb. 16 and Nov. 2 this season. A similar schedule in the future would leave little time to go from one event to the next. With nothing before the Clash and weekend off after it, that event would have more leeway for teams in terms of travel.
No announcement has been made on where the Clash will be held next season and when it will be.
Kennedy was pleased with how the Clash went at Bowman Gray.
“The energy really felt palatable,” he said. “To have over 15,000 people there, sold out on Saturday and Sunday, it’s a great way for us, and we always talk about this, it’s an opportunity for us to promote the season ahead and promote our biggest event of the year, the Daytona 500. It did just that. Being on big Fox, having a great turnout like that, and being able to put on a good racing product.
“We’re pleased with it. We’re learning a lot, a few small tweaks that we’d like to make if we do bring the Clash back there at some point in the future.”
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The Clash debuted in 1979 at Daytona International Speedway as a way to promote the upcoming Daytona 500. The exhibition race ran on the Daytona oval through 2020 and moved to Daytona’s road course in 2021.
As interest waned in the event, NASCAR moved it to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022 to attract new fans. The first year of the event was a success with about 50,000 attending. The attendance dropped in 2023 and NASCAR had to move the event up a day to avoid rain in the Los Angeles area in 2024.
Last year was the end of a three-year contract with the LA Memorial Coliseum and NASCAR moved the event to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.
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