Rumor: Fontana Auto Club Speedway to be converted to short track (5th Update)
NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps has confirmed what was already a well-known sentiment across the industry — that the redevelopment of Auto Club Speedway is currently on hold.
“Do I think creating a short track out there would be a cool thing for us? Yes,” Phelps continued. “With that said, it’s $300 million to build that facility. Is that the best use of that money? That is the big question. The cost of capital right now is still really high, so for us to just press pause right now is essentially what we’re doing.
“But, yeah, I’d love to build a facility out there. When that is going to happen or if that is going to happen, I don’t have a timeline.”
“The market is extremely important to NASCAR,” said Dave Allen, NASCAR’s West Region president to the LA Times.
“So we’re not abandoning the market. What we don’t have is a firm timeline yet. There’s some things within the sport that need to get sorted before we can make some strategic decisions as it relates to what we’re what we’re going to build.
“We’re going to do something. I just don’t know what and when yet.”
NASCAR had hoped to race on a half-mile oval being built on the site of the former Fontana speedway, but that project has stalled.
“That’s option No. 1,” said Allen, the former president of Auto Club Speedway. “Obviously, we’ve been there for a long time. We still retain enough land to build a half-mile oval if we chose to do that.
“But we still need some time to sort some things out and figure out if that’s the right thing to do.”
“The land and the cost of doing business, when you have a facility like we had in Fontana, it’s very, very challenging,” Allen said. “At the end of the day we’re a for-profit company and we have to make decisions that are good for the business so we can keep it going.”
“The plan is to be there. But if opportunities come up, we’re open to anything,” Allen said. “If you had 300 acres and wanted to build a racetrack and be a partner with us, then we would listen. So I think it’s keeping the property warm and being able to do different things with it. And you adjust depending on the market and needs of the market.
“We’re kind of just in a holding pattern.”
March 11, 2025
NASCAR remains committed to bringing stock car racing back to Southern California. But it admitted this weekend it is still not sure where and when that will happen.
“The market is extremely important to NASCAR,” said Dave Allen, NASCAR’s West Region president. “So we’re not abandoning the market. What we don’t have is a firm timeline yet. There’s some things within the sport that need to get sorted before we can make some strategic decisions as it relates to what we’re what we’re going to build.
“We’re going to do something. I just don’t know what and when yet.”
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Auto Club Speedway, which has been torn down, played host to its final race in 2023 while the Clash at the Coliseum, run on a temporary half-mile track installed atop the Coliseum’s football field, did not return this winter after three years. NASCAR had hoped to race on a half-mile oval being built on the site of the former Fontana speedway, but that project has stalled.
“That’s option No. 1,” said Allen, the former president of Auto Club Speedway. “Obviously, we’ve been there for a long time. We still retain enough land to build a half-mile oval if we chose to do that.
“But we still need some time to sort some things out and figure out if that’s the right thing to do.”
…
The ideal solution, Allen said, is the original one. NASCAR retained approximately 90 acres of Auto Club Speedway’s massive footprint, including the main grandstands, front straight, pit road and pit road suites. Those were all to be incorporated into the new short-track venue.
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“We’re kind of just in a holding pattern.” Los Angeles Times
February 3, 2024
The future of NASCAR’s Fontana track remains uncertain as the former 2-mile speedway continues to undergo a reconfiguration.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Track President Dave Allen said that the reconfigured track “most likely” would not be ready for the start of the 2025 Cup Series season. Allen cited COVID [People are still using COVID as an excuse?] and other factors that have continued to push the timeline back.
“We’ve got some internal approvals to work through, but the hope is to have something to go out with sometime in the near future,” Allen told The Times. “Right now, we just don’t have anything to discuss until we have some approvals done.”
December 19, 2023
NASCAR President Steve Phelps has spoken out to reassure those who are wondering if NASCAR is still moving forward Auto Club Speedway reconstruction plans.
Phelps provided an update about Auto Club when he appeared on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio this week.
“We’ve got renderings of what the racetrack will look like, both the surface itself working with iRacing to make sure whatever asphalt track we put down there, whatever size — it will be a short track for sure just based on the fact that we don’t have as much real estate as we had (before),” Phelps said.
“Oh, and by the way, fans for years and years and years said ‘Hey we need some more short tracks.’ And as we continue to improve on our short track package with this Next Gen car, at some point, that track will come online.
“When that is, I don’t know but that’s our desire and that’s what we’re working towards.”
🗣️ “We’ve got renderings of what that race track will look like […] it’ll be a short track, for sure.”#NASCAR President @stevephelps provided an update on the ongoing demolition and re-profiling of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. pic.twitter.com/sFU0UUAP2u
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) December 13, 2023
February 24, 2023
By Mark Cipolloni
This rumor is upgraded to ‘strong’ today and it’s looking increasingly likely this weekend’s race at Fontana will be the last.
NASCAR has sold a majority of the Auto Club Speedway property at Fontana, Calif., Sports Business Journal reported, with Sunday’s Cup Series race likely the last ever at the 26-year-old venue east of Los Angeles.
According to the report, 433 acres of the 522-acre site have already been sold, despite a long-rumored NASCAR plan to reconfigure the 2-mile track into a half-mile oval. Some details of the sale of the property, formerly an abandoned steel mill, were discovered at the California Environmental Quality Act website.
February 22, 2023
By Mark Cipolloni
This weekend’s NASCAR Cup race at Auto Club Speedway will be the last race on the 2-mile oval in Fontana, CA. due to dwindling crowds
There is talk of making the track a paperclip shaped high-banked version of Martinsville, but it is very possible the track will be shuttered and sold for its valuable real estate value.
“Right now, this will be our last race with the 2-mile track,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last week. “Right now, it’s going to take a couple of years to build the new track. It’s something right now that we’re interested in doing. What that timeline looks like, we’re not sure.”
Coupled with NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell’s similar uncertainty in a recent interview with the Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, it would seem a permanently closing Auto Club Speedway is on the table.
A short oval is not going to draw any additional paying customers, and NASCAR now has another race in Southern, CA at the LA Coliseum Mickey Mouse 1/4-mile oval. Building a slightly bigger one out in Fontana appears to make zero sense.