Clash at Daytona 2017: Drivers, format, lineup, and starting grid for NASCAR’s opening event

Pick a cliché related to racing aggressively with little concern for the consequence if something goes awry, and it’s applicable to Saturday night’s The Clash (8:25 p.m. ET, FS1), the season-opening exhibition race featuring a select field.

The annual nonpoints event will see 17 drivers race on Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5.-mile surface for 75 laps, with a mandatory Lap 25 caution dividing the event into two segments. NASCAR set the starting lineup via a blind draw Friday that saw Brad Keselowski awarded the pole. He’ll share the front row with Denny Hamlin, the defending Clash winner.

With no points on the line and cars that are backups for next weekend’s Daytona 500, drivers think nothing of attempting moves they’d otherwise be reluctant to try. If it works, then it may lead to a win. And if not, oh well. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

“The biggest thing to accomplish is to win,” Busch said. “… The Clash is all go-for-broke, let it all hang out, bring home the steering wheel or [checkered flag] type thing.”

But there is a tangible benefit for those drivers competing. The Clash is NASCAR’s version of spring training, an opportunity to get reacclimated under real-time conditions following the offseason: to shake off the cobwebs; rehone one’s feel for the car; and in some instances, begin to develop rapport if the driver is with a new team.

Hamlin credits winning last year’s Clash with helping him take the victory in the Daytona 500 the following week. Although the two races have widely varying conditions — one is held in the night with cool temperatures, the other during the afternoon under a hot sun — Hamlin and crew chief Mike Wheeler were able to get a feel for their Toyota in race trim, while the pit crew got to experience live action.

”I haven’t driven anything since my last lap (in the 2016 finale on Nov. 20),” Hamlin said. “No testing for me or anything, which is kind of the same as last year and we fired off and won the Clash.

“I’m pretty confident that it just takes a few reps during practice to kind of feel the car out. I’ve done all the homework that I can do at home, studying tapes, studying data to figure out the best moves to make. I always like to kind of picture myself in certain situations and look at the data and see what I need to do to succeed. For me, that’s why we’ve had the success we’ve had on these tracks.”

As for the strategy element, in contrast to the Daytona 500 where patience and ensuring your car stays intact is imperative, the Clash is essentially a spring race. Because the field is condensed, electing to run in the back to better escape the inevitable “Big One” is not feasible — there simply isn’t enough buffer in a race with only 17 cars.

Therefore, it’s best to run up front then belligerently defend your position. Of course, this leads to carnage and a garage full of destroyed cars, but that only plays into the Clash’s all-in mentality.

“With the race so short, that’s why you see a lot of the wrecks,” Hamlin said, “because we’re a little rusty and because we’re all going for it because we know it’s win or nothing.”