Friday 5: NASCAR’s moves increasing chance of conflict on, off track for drivers

NASCAR’s recent changes to the schedule, rules that tighten the competition, and a new car designed to close the gap between teams have put drivers in an ever-tightening vise that could lead to more contact on the track and conflict off it.

Sunday’s Clash at the Coliseum is the latest example of NASCAR’s push in this direction. The exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum marks the first time Cup cars will race on a quarter-mile track since 1971. Some drivers believe mayhem will result.

For fans, this could be entertaining. For drivers, it challenges their personal code of what’s acceptable and what’s not while racing in close quarters. It’s an issue drivers have faced more often in recent years. 

“NASCAR has put us all in a position to make challenging decisions on what is right,” former champion Joey Logano said. “I’ll be 100 percent honest with you, a lot of times you don’t know what’s right.”

That leads to disputes. 

Denny Hamlin interrupted Alex Bowman’s victory celebration at Martinsville and expressed his displeasure with how Bowman drove late in last year’s playoff race. 

Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick confronted each other after the Bristol playoff race last season. Their feud carried on to the Charlotte Roval — where Harvick wrecked Elliott. 

Conflicts gain attention. Such is part of the allure of short-track racing. The Clash at the Coliseum has been compared to Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile track inside a football stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Bowman Gray Stadium has hosted races since 1949.

Of course, the track is better known as the “Madhouse” for its racing and disagreements. 

“We’re racing, wrestling and religion all kind of combined together,” Gray Garrison, promoter at