What’s Happening?

Fans are clamoring for any news regarding the fate of the now-defunct Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Steven Nava on X noticed a potential slight change to the short track layout at Auto Club Speedway, making it a shorter version of New Hampshire, but is it really the change he thinks it is?

• In 2020, NASCAR announced that they would convert the 2.0-mile Auto Club Speedway to a short track with plans to sell much of the surrounding land on which the original track sat. NASCAR closed on the property in early 2023 and held the last race on the D-Shaped Oval in late February. Demolition began later that year.
• However, NASCAR has made little progress in building the new race track, while warehouses have increased around the facility. NASCAR President Steve Phelps cited multiple reasons, including costs and the lackluster Next-Gen short-track product. However, this delay has jeopardized NASCAR’s presence in Southern California.
• With the short-track project in purgatory, many wonder if the original plans could be modified. Will there actually be modifications to the track?

Is There Actually a Change?

To analyze Nava’s claims, let’s look at the original plans for the property, which are pictured. All of the buildings are mapped the exact same, with a small parcel of land for the race track itself, a paperclip-shaped oval similar to Martinsville, which was slated to have high banks similar to Bristol.

Taking a look again at Nava’s post below, I see that an Auto Club Speedway logo obscures the track. However, the surrounding areas of the track have changed, with some grandstands added in turn four and turn two. The track itself may have changed slightly with wider turns, but it’s very hard to tell with the logo obscuring the track layout.

However, as Nava points out, NASCAR has made no official announcement on a timeline for Auto Club Speedway. We know it will be a short track since that’s the only type of track that can fit in that small of a space.

The track itself was already similar in shape to New Hampshire to begin with, with its long straightaways and tight turns. So, if there were a slight change, it probably wouldn’t change the final product much at all.

The fact that an Auto Club Speedway logo is conveniently on the track could mean a few things. It could be just a marking so those referencing the plans know what will be there when construction is finished. However, maybe NASCAR is considering making bigger changes and wants to obscure the track as a result.

At the end of the day, NASCAR has yet to abandon the project officially. NASCAR President Steve Phelps referenced it during the Daytona 500 weekend this past February in an interview with Chris Myers of FOX Sports. However, NASCAR hasn’t taken much action out there either, putting this project into the “I’ll believe it when I see it” category for many.

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