Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Martin Truex Jr. swaps spotters for Busch Light Clash weekend

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Jonathan Howard | Last updated 2/2/24

This weekend, Martin Truex Jr. is going to a backup spotter in Geoff Doucette as his regular spotter Drew Herring is expecting a new baby. Herring is back home in case his child is born this weekend. Truex Jr. will try to defend his NASCAR Busch Light Clash win with Doucette in his ear.

Now, I’m not sure how important spotters are for this track. Things got messy last year, and a lot of the information told to drivers was who caused them to spin around. In any case, if Truex Jr. expects to win again in Los Angeles, he will have to keep his head on a swivel.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was great in this race last season. He didn’t start in the front, but he quickly worked his way up there and held off drivers like Kyle Busch.

Martin Truex Jr. is the favorite for the race this year. It will be interesting if the spotter change moves his line or not.

Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports reported on the spotter change.

Martin Truex Jr. spotter Drew Herring is on baby watch this weekend so Geoff Doucette will spot for him.

Summary of Cup spotter changes: pic.twitter.com/eiJ2D5pVBJ
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 2, 2024

There was quite a bit of movement with spotters this offseason, as you can see in Pockrass’ tweet/post. This isn’t out of the ordinary, but there were surprising changes in the spotter stand.

It was probably a good call for Herring to stay home. This might be a longer weekend than just Saturday and Sunday. The Busch Light Clash could go into Monday or Tuesday depending on the weather.

Martin Truex Jr. set to defend his win, if rain allows

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Martin Truex Jr. in defending his Busch Light Clash win from 2023 is the weather. Southern California is expected to receive rainfall in “unprecedented” amounts.

The rain likely won’t mess with the practices and heats on Saturday. So the qualifying order for both the Cup and Mexico Series should be set going into Sunday. However, that is when the issues start. Early in the day would be best for the Busch Light Clash to happen. But with a start time of 8:00PM EST, I’m not sure that’s going to happen on such short notice.

That means, if Sunday night is rained out, we could have the Clash loved to Monday. Oh, except Monday might be even worse than Sunday in terms of rain. Where does that leave NASCAR? With a hard decision to make.

There are no other events scheduled immediately after the NASCAR weekend. That means there could be a wait for a couple of days. Then again, staying in California isn’t cheap.

Will Martin Truex Jr. get a chance to defend his 2023 Busch Light Clash victory?

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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