Auto Club Speedway, is a two-mile (3.2 km) long low-banked egg-shaped superspeedway, formally known as California Speedway. It is located in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, close to Fontana. Since 1997, it has hosted NASCAR racing per year and is also used for open-wheel racing events.
The race track is owned and managed by the NASCAR which is situated 47 miles (76 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, close to the past locality of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway.
Kaiser Steel Mill started the track construction in 1995 and finished in 1996. The speedway's main grandstand seating capacity is around 68,000, with an additional 28 skyboxes for a total capacity of 122,000. A fan zone was built behind the main grandstand in 2006. With the addition of a 2nd annual NASCAR weekend, the track installed the lights in 2004. The track organized the only one NASCAR weekend per year since 2011.
From 1997 through 2002, IndyCar held a 500-mile event under Champ Car sanctioning. From 2002 to 2005, the current IndyCar sanctioning was held as a 400-mile race, and from 2012 to 2015, a 500-mile race.
Roger Penske and Kaiser Steel decided that a racetrack was built near Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana, California in 1994. The next day, CART declared that it will hold an annual event at the site. A few months later, NASCAR president Bill France Jr. accepted that NASCAR Cup Series races were held on the track once it was completed. Track construction issues were discussed in a community meeting to local effect and events.
Following the track's great launch, the speedway continued to extend reserved grandstand seating along the front stretch with an additional 15,777 seats. An extra 28 skyboxes were built to the top of the main grandstand in May 1999. The Auto Club Dragway, a quarter-mile drag strip situated outside the main speedway's backstretch, opened in 2001.
The speedway's infield was rebuilt the following year to allow that multifunctional road track. The San Bernardino County Planning Commission authorized was have a permit to change the speedway's condition on April 24, 2003, allowing the installation of lights around the track.
After a few years, NASCAR confirmed the track would host the 2nd annual NASCAR Cup Series event in the 2004 season, with the second race taking place under the lights. When a second NASCAR weekend was added to the track in 2004, the audience ratio significantly decrease, by as much as 20,000 people. With such a massive turnout, drivers and the media began to question whether the track was worth two dates.
Until the 2011 season, NASCAR ran two weekends of racing per year, before returning to a single race weekend
The speedway's midway, behind the main stadium, was rebuilt in 2006. The "Discover IE FanZone" is a new midway. that features Apex (a Wolfgang Puck restaurant) were added lounge areas, with more shaded in a retail store, and an enjoyable stage.
On September 8, 2020, it was disclosed that documentation had been submitted with San Bernardino County for the restoration of the facility as a half-mile-high banked oval. The Insider first reported that the planned short track layout would include lengthy straight-aways equal to those at Martinsville Speedway and high-banked bends close to those at Bristol Motor Speedway. Work on the project was set to begin after the 2021 Auto Club 400 and be completed in time for the 2022 season.
Surface: Asphalt
Shape: D-shaped Oval Superspeedway
Turns: 4
Banking: Turns: 14-degree Frontstretch: 11-degree Backstretch: 3°
• Interior Test Circuit 13 turns, 1.45 miles
• Interior Test Circuit 13 turns, 1.45 miles
• Motorcycle Competition Course 21 turns, 2.36 miles
Departments: Auto Club Victory Lane
Owners: NASCAR, ( ISC) International Speedway Corporation
Capacity: 122,000 (total)
Architects: Roger Penske, Paxton Waters
Opened: 20 June 1997