NASCAR watching Fontana attendance

Attendance at Fontana has been spotty at best for NASCAR

The NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Southern California a year ago was hampered by rain that caused numerous delays and frustrated fans, drivers and track officials. Now the sport and the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana are about to be tested again, this time by an economic storm — and a big question is how many stock car racing fans will weather it by showing up. Then again, in light of Auto Club Speedway's recent history, it could be difficult to precisely separate the economy's impact on Sunday's race attendance from other factors. Ever since NASCAR awarded two Cup races a year to the track in 2004, the 92,000-seat facility has not sold out for either event. It's a shortfall whose potential causes — ranging from how the races are marketed to the quality of racing on the wide two-mile oval to bad weather — have been hotly debated in NASCAR Nation. Los Angeles Times