With demolition underway in Fontana, California, NASCAR president Steve Phelps says the plan is still to redevelop Auto Club Speedway into a half-mile short track at some point in the near future.
The confirmation was issued over the weekend during the annual state of the sport press conference at Phoenix Raceway but details were nondescript at best.
“I would say that we are still planning on building a short track in Fontana; what the timing of that is, I don’t know,” Phelps said. “This isn’t the best time to be building based on inflation, the cost of capital, etc. But our intention is to continue to be in the Southern California market.
“For 2024, it will be at the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum. It is our intention to build a short track in the Inland Empire.”
How NASCAR will transform the track
The final race on the 25-year-old two-mile NASCAR-owned speedway took place on February 26 and details then emerged over the sale of 433 acres on the property for $544 million to Hillwood Investment Properties and CBRE Investment Management but there was no outward redevelopment until this past month.
Pictures have begun to trickle out over the past several weeks of active demolition of what was Turn 1 of the speedway as the land transforms into a warehouse logistics hub.
Should renovation into a much smaller race track begin, rendering show a track that looks like a cross between Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway, but Phelps would not offer much in terms of a timeline.
“We’ve got renderings,” Phelps said. “We’ve got what it looks like. We are ready to go when the time is right.”
The preseason Clash at the Coliseum will enter the final year of three-year agreement in 2024. Could the renovated and shortened Auto Club Speedway be ready in time for 2025?
“That’s a good question that we’re not ready to talk about because we’re not going to talk about the ’25 schedule,” Phelps said. “But the Southern California market is important to us.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.