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NASCAR is back! The 2022 regular season does not start for two more weeks but we get an exhibition race at the LA Coliseum to get us ready. The Busch Light Clash normally happens in Daytona, but this year, NASCAR has moved it to the Southern California football stadium.
The race is scheduled for Sunday evening, but a day ahead we start a three-part qualifying process. The first stage is single-car qualifying on Saturday night to determine the starting lineups for four qualifying heats that will take place on Sunday.
The Saturday single-car qualifying gets underway at 8:30 p.m. ET and will air on FS1. We’ll provide updates over the course of the qualifying round until we have the four starting grids. The fastest driver claims pole #1, the second fastest gets pole #2 and so forth. The fifth fastest driver claims the #2 spot in the first race, the sixth fastest driver claims the #2 spot in the second race, and so on through the 36 drivers.
For the time being, here is the list of drivers and the order in which they are running their qualifying lap. We’ll update this with the final orders as the results come in. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson come into qualifying as the race favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook. They are +600, followed by Kyle Busch at +650.
2022 Busch Light Clash qualifying heats, starting lineups
| Heat (Pos) | Car No. | Driver | Team | Qualifying time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heat (Pos) | Car No. | Driver | Team | Qualifying time |
| 1(1) | 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | 13.745 |
| 1(2) | 99 | Daniel Suarez | TrackHouse Racing Team | 13.952 |
| 1(3) | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | 13.962 |
| 1(4) | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | 14.007 |
| 1(5) | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | 14.053 |
| 1(6) | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | 14.151 |
| 1(7) | 78 | BJ McLeod | Live Fast Motorsports | 14.235 |
| 1(8) | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | 14.304 |
| 1(9) | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Team | 14.451 |
| 2(1) | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Richard Childress Racing | 13.761 |
| 2(2) | 41 | Cole Custer | Stewart-Haas Racing | 13.953 |
| 2(3) | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | 13.965 |
| 2(4) | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | 14.014 |
| 2(5) | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | 14.076 |
| 2(6) | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | 14.157 |
| 2(7) | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | 14.247 |
| 2(8) | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing | 14.305 |
| 2(9) | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing | 14.466 |
| 3(1) | 31 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing | 13.891 |
| 3(2) | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | 13.954 |
| 3(3) | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | 13.973 |
| 3(4) | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | 14.023 |
| 3(5) | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | 14.12 |
| 3(6) | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | 14.158 |
| 3(7) | 17 | Chris Buescher | Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing | 14.251 |
| 3(8) | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Spire Motorsports | 14.326 |
| 3(9) | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | 14.471 |
| 4(1) | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | 13.949 |
| 4(2) | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | 13.957 |
| 4(3) | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports | 13.978 |
| 4(4) | 77 | Landon Cassill | Spire Motorsports | 14.05 |
| 4(5) | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | 14.148 |
| 4(6) | 43 | Erik Jones | Petty GMS Racing | 14.194 |
| 4(7) | 15 | Ryan Preece | Rick Ware Racing | 14.277 |
| 4(8) | 45 | Kurt Busch | 23XI Racing | 14.437 |
| 4(9) | 42 | Ty Dillon | Petty GMS Racing | 14.532 |