LOS ANGELES – Fans from across the country filled the Coliseum on Sunday to see a sporting event never held here before: a NASCAR race.

Despite the little orange earplugs and oversize noise-canceling headphones that many fans wore, the crowd’s roar of approval could be heard over the sounds of crunching fenders, squealing tires and revving engines. Team Penske driver Joey Logano finished first in the historic 150-lap exhibition race at Memorial Coliseum.

Although speeds were much lower than NASCAR fans are used to, drivers topped 65 mph on the quarter-mile track – the shortest course since 1971. Some of the 23 drivers who started recognized benefits in such short tracks.

“The speeds are so slow that I feel like at a track like this, you can have a little more contact probably and the car still has grip or can stay under control,” Logano said at the news conference after his win. “We’ll have to see how that evolves as we get to some of these other racetracks and stuff. I think speed was part of that today.”

Until this year, the Busch Light Clash, an exhibition race that opens the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, had been run in Daytona, Florida.

The storied Coliseum has hosted many events, including University of Southern California Trojan football, blockbuster concerts, the two Olympics and the 1959 World Series – which is why it caught the attention of first-time fans. NASCAR estimated that about 70% of Sunday’s fans had never been to a race before.