A new YouTube video making the rounds in the NASCAR Community shows the plaques and shoe prints from Auto Club Speedway’s Walk of Fame removed from their original spot, with some broken.
Auto Club Speedway Walk of Fame footprints & plaques spotted on drone video after being removed.
by u/WhoDat824 in NASCAR
The destruction of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, is one of the slowest-developing stories in the NASCAR community.
After the sale of a majority of the land surrounding the once 2.5-mile speedway, and public plans to convert the venue into a half-mile short track, a majority of the massive venue was left abandoned.
While occasional new additions pop up at the venue, with a parking lot along the proposed short track back stretch going up in the past year, a majority of changes to the area come from the companies that purchased the land, as opposed to NASCAR.
As fans wait to hear what the long-term plans for the beloved track are, on occasion, drone operators or brave fans (and a few drivers) go to the site to show the online NASCAR community the dilapidated state of Auto Club’s remains.
Though these videos rarely show anything new, a recent upload from a YouTuber, AcAdapter Inc (who has a wonderful series of videos showing the changes to the track), has the online community talking, as, with the help of a drone, he has located the concrete slabs and plaques from the track’s Walk of Fame.
For those unfamiliar, the Walk of Fame at Auto Club was a concrete portion of walkway that featured the names, shoe prints, and a plaque, memorializing race winners at the track, similar to the names and hand prints found at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
In the past, a handful of fans have asked online what happened to these, assuming them to be destroyed, or left to be destroyed during the track’s eventual destruction or conversion.
But, in this new video, the drone footage shows the concrete slabs pulled from the ground, fenced off, and sitting on wood pallets, with a majority of the stones kept intact with their footprint and signature.
Unfortunately, as removing concrete is difficult, a few are shown to be broken, with at least two of Jimmie Johnson’s, one of Tony Stewart’s, and Greg Biffle’s, seen broken among the bunch.
Though this has sparked some outrage amongst fans, many are hopeful about the future of these stones, as NASCAR is planning to preserve them in some way.
Unfortunately, that future is still unclear, as NASCAR has yet to confirm the beginning of the building process for the proposed short track in Fontana or any further plans for the venue at this time.
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