Auto Club Speedway / California Speedway

Auto Club Speedway / California Speedway at a glance

Location

Fontana, California

Type

oval

Length

2 mi (3.219 km)

Turns

4

Direction

counter-clockwise

Banking

14° in the turns, 11° on the frontstretch, 3° on the backstretch

Surface

asphalt

Opened

1997

Owner

NASCAR

Capacity

68,000

Address

9300 Cherry Avenue

Website

autoclubspeedway.com

Track map and layout

IMPORTANT CONTEXT: Auto Club Speedway's original 2-mile D-shaped oval, described here for historical reference, is no longer standing. The track closed permanently in February 2023 and demolition of the grandstands and racing surface began that October to make way for NASCAR's planned redevelopment. The 2-mile layout that raced from 1997 to 2023 was a wide, sweeping D-shaped superspeedway similar in spirit to sister track Michigan International Speedway, with moderate 14-degree banking that produced multi-groove racing and made it a fan and driver favorite among NASCAR's 'cookie cutter' intermediate ovals. NASCAR's stated plan is to build a much smaller, high-banked paperclip-style short track, roughly half a mile long, on part of the retained property, but as of 2026 that project remains unbuilt and unscheduled.

Named corners and sections

• Turn 1 (former). Entry to the wide, 14-degree banked corner off the old frontstretch, part of the demolished 2-mile layout.
• Turn 3 (former). Mirror corner on the back half of the old D-shaped oval, also demolished as of 2024.

Configurations

Events and race weekends

Auto Club Speedway hosts no races today. Its final NASCAR Cup Series event ran in February 2023, ending a 26-year run of annual Cup racing, and the track has not appeared on the NASCAR national-series schedule since. NASCAR has stated an intention to eventually build a new short track on part of the property, but no race has been scheduled and no return date has been announced as of 2026.

Getting there and parking

Los Angeles International Airport and Ontario International Airport are both within reasonable driving distance of the Fontana site, with Ontario the closer of the two at roughly 20-25 minutes. There is currently no event to plan travel around, since the speedway is closed and under redevelopment.

• Ontario International Airport (ONT) · about 25 min drive
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) · about 70 min drive

There is no active event calendar at the site; check NASCAR and local news for any update on the short-track redevelopment before planning a visit.

Hotels and camping near Auto Club Speedway / California Speedway

With the track closed and no events scheduled, there is no current race-weekend lodging pattern to describe. The Inland Empire cities of Fontana, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga sit closest to the property for anyone visiting the area for other reasons.

Where to look

Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana in the Inland Empire, or the greater Los Angeles area further west.

Track days, driving experiences and lap records

There is no public driving or ride-along program at Auto Club Speedway; the facility has been closed since February 2023 and its grandstands and racing surface were demolished starting in October 2023 to prepare the site for redevelopment.

Spectator guide

There is no spectator experience to describe at Auto Club Speedway today; the venue that once seated up to 68,000 in its grandstands has been demolished and is not open to the public in any race-day capacity.

History of Auto Club Speedway / California Speedway

Building on a steel mill site

Auto Club Speedway opened in June 1997 as California Speedway, built by Penske Motorsports on the site of the former Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, east of Los Angeles. The wide, 2-mile D-shaped oval quickly became a favorite among NASCAR drivers for its sweeping, multi-groove racing surface, and it hosted both NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar Series events through much of its history, along with two Cup weekends a year during peak seasons.

A Southern California fixture

International Speedway Corporation took over the venue in 1999, and the Automobile Club of Southern California bought naming rights in 2008, renaming it Auto Club Speedway. For 26 consecutive years it served as NASCAR's flagship stop in the massive Los Angeles media market, hosting Cup Series racing every season from 1997 through early 2023, along with a long run of IndyCar events through 2015.

Closure and demolition

NASCAR, which took ownership of the speedway in its 2019 corporate consolidation, ran the track's final Cup Series race in February 2023 and closed the facility immediately afterward as part of a plan to sell most of the surrounding 500-plus acres for industrial and warehouse development. Demolition of the original 2-mile oval's grandstands and racing surface began in October 2023, and by 2024 large portions of the site had visibly disappeared under warehouse construction.

An unbuilt future

NASCAR's stated plan, branded 'Next Gen in California,' called for retaining a smaller parcel to build a new high-banked short track roughly half a mile long, conceptually similar to Bristol or Martinsville, to keep a NASCAR presence in Southern California. As of 2026, however, that project remains unbuilt: NASCAR has confirmed the short track is still intended but has repeatedly cited construction costs and other priorities for the lack of a firm timeline, leaving the historic Fontana site's motorsports future genuinely uncertain.

Frequently asked questions

Other tracks nearby

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• Willow Springs International Raceway · 70 mi · road course
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway · 206 mi · oval
• WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca · 295 mi · road course
• Phoenix Raceway · 302 mi · oval