NASCAR has flipped the script from 2016

The change to the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule that has garnered the most attention is the addition of a race that doesn’t even count for points.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was fully revealed on Wednesday, but before then, there had been various aspects of the 36-race calendar, specifically among the many changes, that had been confirmed.

In fact, one such confirmation pertained to a race outside of that 36-race calendar, yet it is that change that has garnered the most talk of all.

The Clash exhibition race has kicked off the season at Daytona International Speedway for the last 43 years. But after 42 consecutive seasons of being held on the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, it was moved to the venue’s 14-turn, 3.61-mile (5.810-kilometer) interior road course for this year.

But it won’t be at either layout in 2022. In fact, it won’t even be contested in the state of Florida.

The 2022 Clash is set to be contested on the west coast at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where a quarter-mile oval track will be set up inside the home of the USC Trojans football team for however many drivers end up being eligible to compete in the non-points event.

This race is scheduled to take place two weeks before the official 2022 season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 20. It is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 6 during the NFL’s week off between the conference championships games on Sunday, January 30 and Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, February 13.

The move is the exact opposite of the move pulled off by the NCAA back in September 2016, but at a venue roughly half the size.

Five years ago, the Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies contested an NCAA football game at a field set up inside of Bristol Motor Speedway.

It was a move that led many non-NASCAR fans to comment on just how huge the venue was for a football game. Little did many know that the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee is actually the second shortest track on the schedule.

And now we get to see a massive NCAA football venue look like a local short track.