Motorsport: Season-opening NASCAR race brought forward to dodge bad weather at Los Angeles

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates NASCAR victory at Chicago.
Shane van Gisbergen celebrates NASCAR victory at Chicago. Photo credit: Getty Images

ThreeNow's coverage of the American NASCAR motorsport series has been brought forward 24 hours, due to predicted bad weather at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Busch Light Clash was scheduled for Monday afternoon (NZ time), but organisers have shifted the event to 2pm Sunday, as a weather bomb closes on southern California.

The NASCAR Mexico Series event, originally due before the main race, will now take place afterwards.

"As the weather forecast continued to worsen, public safety and a lot of the things that were going around, a lot of different events that are going on in the community as well, we started to review [Sunday] options late last night and this morning," said NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O'Donnell.

"Those obviously sped up and we really applaud The Coliseum for even making this a possibility. It's the best of what is a really tough situation for the fans and this racing community, but felt like this was the best option to keep everybody safe, and still try and get both events in."

ThreeNow has secured the streaming rights for NASCAR in New Zealand for the first time, with former Kiwi ace Shane van Gisbergen making his fulltime switch from the Australian Supercars circuit to the US championship.

Last July, van Gisbergen made history with victory in his NASCAR debut around the streets of Chicago, but contest only seven races in the Cup Series, beginning at Austin, Texas, on March 25. In the meantime, he will cut his teeth in the second-tier Xfinity Series.