NASCAR kicks off weekend of racing at LA Coliseum aimed at attracting new people to the sport

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Sunday kicked off a very big sports week for Los Angeles. It began with a first for the L.A. Coliseum and NASCAR, which built a temporary quarter-mile racetrack for the event.

NASCAR has never opened its schedule outside of Daytona Beach until now, and the fans came out in full force for Sunday's historic event, part of the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.

A new kind of race on a unique kind of quarter-mile track, with drivers racing a new, next-gen car.

"This isn't necessarily just a video game this is a true simulation," said Ray Smith, of NASCAR.

Smith says they partnered with iRacing to create the ultimate fan experience.

"It gives them a really good experience, an authentic experience, of what drivers are going to go through during the day at the real track," said Smith.

Once you're in the driver's seat, fans can take their car all the way to 75 mph, and around those curves, you have to slow down to 35 mph just so you don't crash. This truly is what fan fest is all about.

And fans weren't the first to try this simulator out.

"The first time you were able to drive on this track with these cars was in the virtual world, with iRacing a couple of weeks ago," Smith said.

Spotter, Tony Hirschman, is the eagle eyes for NASCAR driver Kyle Busch.

"It's a new race so no one has any laps here," said Tony Hirschman, spotter for NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. "So the more you pay attention or the little tips you can pick up and pass it on, try to get a leg up on the competition."

NASCAR says that 70 percent of tickets sold at Sunday's event were not from their regular fanbase. That's not the case for father, Todd Cowley, and son, Kyle, who's named after Kyle Busch himself.

"This is something totally special, and it's here in L.A., and you know, there's not a lot of races here in California," said Cowley. "So yeah, it's attracting a lot of new people to the sport."

The sport is still bringing back the diehards, who say they're glad to have NASCAR back in their West Coast backyard.

Racer Joey Logano held off Kyle Busch to win the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum.