The redevelopment of NASCAR’s former Auto Club Speedway property in Fontana, Calif., has been going on for the past year with no sign that there is any progress to replace the track, but new video from the location offer a picture of how much space is left for it.
NASCAR maintains that it intends to build a half-mile oval on a portion of the property it reserved for a new racing venue that will take the place of the old two-mile oval.
“Our goal is really to be in Southern California long term” NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer Ben Kennedy told American Cars And Racing during a press conference for the release of the 2025 NASCAR schedule.
“We’ve continued to work on our plans for Fontana, we have a number of configurations and variations that the team has been working on for what that track might look like and what are kind of the other activities that can happen on that parcel of land that we have there, but then also exploring all of our opportunities in the Southern California market. It’s a massive market for us. Number two in terms of the quantity of NASCAR fans, it’s a huge media market for us, its in [broadcast partner] Fox’s backyard. So, strategically as a sport, it makes a lot of sense for us to be in Southern California.”
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Preliminary designs for the track showed it to be a paperclip-shaped oval centered on the existing grandstands, which have been preserved along with a section of the front straight, pit lane and the garage area.
The ACAdapter Inc YouTube channel has been visiting the location to document the demolition of the track and construction of an industrial park on much of the property. New buildings have popped up within what used to be turns 1 and 2 of the old track that closely match those from a site plan.
The buildings are situated about 300 feet from the easternmost surviving garage buildings, which would likely have to be removed in order to fit the new track’s turns on that end.
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The last Cup Series race held on the Auto Club Speedway was in February 2023 and NASCAR effectively replaced it on the 2024 schedule with its first race at Iowa Speedway. Iowa is returning in 2025 and it looks like the earliest there could be a new track in Fontana that’s ready to host a race would be in 2027, but the clock is ticking. NASCAR officials have previously said it will take about 18 months to complete construction once it gets a green light.
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