NASCAR has sold a majority of the Auto Club Speedway property at Fontana, Calif., Sports Business Journal reported, with Sunday’s Cup Series race likely the last ever at the 26-year-old venue east of Los Angeles.
According to the report, 433 acres of the 522-acre site have already been sold, amid the a long-rumored NASCAR plan to reconfigure the 2-mile track into a half-mile oval. Some details of the sale of the property, formerly an abandoned steel mill, were discovered at the California Environmental Quality Act website and the identify of the purchase remained unclear.
NASCAR had no firm plans of racing at the speedway past this season. Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 will be the 33rd Cup Series race to be contested at Fontana. The track previously played host to two races a season, but lagging attendance reduced the schedule to one race per season since 2003.
NASCAR’s future in the Los Angeles market is uncertain. A race on a temporary quarter-mile track inside the Los Angeles Coliseum has been contested the last two years, but its use as a full-field points event is not likely.
Nearby race tracks in the cities of Moreno Valley and Ontario had been used by NASCAR in the past, but a shopping mall was built on the former Riverside International Speedway site in Moreno Valley, while the former Ontario Motor Speedway site has been converted into a number of industrial uses, including an arena used by the Los Angeles Clippers G-League team and the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL club.
–Field Level Media
