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Auto Club Speedway continues to be a racetrack shrouded in open mystery. The track is being actively demolished with a verbal plan for the future, but, no clear timeline on action for it. Here is everything we know about the current state of Auto Club Speedway.
We know that Auto Club Speedway is being demolished, and we have a photo update from last weekend. Mark J. Rebilas took this photo collage showcasing that the race track is mostly demolished aside from a part of the front straightaway, some of the grandstands, pit road, and the garage area.
Interestingly enough, the piece of the track that remains almost exactly replicates what the original short track renderings looked like. The template is there for the original short track idea to still be built should NASCAR choose to do so.
We have also recently gotten some news on the development of the land that NASCAR sold surrounding Auto Club Speedway. Candace Carlisle of CoStar reports that Hillwood Investment Properties, whom NASCAR sold the land to and has partnered with in the past, received $756 million to develop the land where the majority of the 2.0-mile oval once stood. The plan is to build a “Speedway Commerce Center”, which Carlisle describes as a “6.6 million square foot logistics hub”.
It’s important to note that this is NOT overtaking the small parcel of land where the track still stands. This is going to be built on the surrounding land where demolition has taken place. A short track is still very possible.
November 2023: State of the Sport Address Affirming Commitment to Building Short Track
Steve Phelps has addressed Auto Club Speedway on multiple occasions. He addressed it during the NASCAR State of the Sport Address at Phoenix Raceway in November, saying, “It is our intention to build a short track in the Inland Empire”.
December 2023: Reiterating the Commitment
He addressed the short track at Auto Club Speedway again in December on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. He reiterated their commitment to the track, but, he also gave some insight into why they are not building currently.
The first drawback Phelps mentioned had to do with the timing. Due to different economic factors, it’s a difficult time to build an entire race track.
This isn’t the best time to be building based on inflation, the cost of capital, et cetera. But our intention is to continue to be in the southern California market.
Steve Phelps
Phelps also discussed the short-track racing product with the Next-Gen car. NASCAR has been throwing a lot of different things at the short-track package to help the package, so, is now the best time to build a new short track?
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 on-line.
Steve Phelps
February 2024: Timeline Accelerated?
Phelps most recently addressed Auto Club Speedway during the Fox broadcast of the Daytona 500. In an interview with Chris Myers, Phelps was asked about the future of NASCAR in California. With the demolition of Auto Club Speedway and the uncertainty of the LA Coliseum, what is the future of NASCAR in California?
Phelps declared that NASCAR would race in Southern California in 2025, calling it the “2nd most popular market” for NASCAR. In that answer, he gave some insight into Auto Club Speedway, reiterating once again that they plan on building a short track there.
We’re not going to miss a year, and then, I think the other piece too, because we are committed there, where Auto Club Speedway is in Fontana out in the Inland Empire, we kept a 100 acre parsel to build a track there.
Steve Phelps
As for whether or not that means NASCAR will be there in 2025, that’s unclear. Track president Dave Allen told the Los Angeles Times that the current timeline for building the track is “12-18 months”. That’s a tough turnaround to build a race track in time for the 2025 season unless it’s towards the tail end of the season. Allen also mentioned that there are some “internal approvals” that need to be done before a track can be built.
March 2024: Long Beach?
Another wrench was thrown in Auto Club Speedway’s future on March 26th with a bombshell report from RACER.com’s Marshall Pruett. Pruett reports that NASCAR is looking to purchase 50% of the Long Beach Grand Prix, which could allow the NASCAR Cup Series to stage the race instead of IndyCar. This could render the potential Auto Club Speedway short track obsolete.
However, this never got off the ground. Gerald Forsythe, owner of a 50% stake in the race, bought the remaining stake, committing that the race will remain an IndyCar race. The exciting, yet idealistic option of Long Beach is now off the table.
Auto Club Speedway is currently in a state of flux. NASCAR is not ready to build quite yet, but, that doesn’t mean the track will not happen.
