NASCAR in 'a holding pattern' on Auto Club Speedway
Today at 11:15 AM
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."
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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."
