Fans Revolt Against NASCAR’s “Horrible Mistake” With an Upcoming Race

On February 26, 2023, NASCAR’s top drivers would be racing around the historic two-mile oval track at Fontana for the last time ever. Scheduled to be revamped into a shorter track, the Auto Club Speedway will host the NASCAR Pala Casino 400 as its last race.

As a result of this makeover, Fontana Auto Club would not be hosting any races next year in 2024. Having hosted its inaugural race in 1997, the raceway celebrated its silver jubilee in February 2022. During this time, it has been a witness to several memorable and historic moments in NASCAR.

Jeff Gordon won his first NASCAR Cup Series trophy at Fontana. Moreover, it is also the site where Kyle Busch registered his first Cup win. However, with all the redevelopment plans, it’s only a matter of time before the tracks of Fontana are torn down and revamped into a shorter track, with the rest of the area used for commercial development.

On Friday, NASCAR shared an image of a beautiful sunset over Fontana. with the caption “The sun sets on an incredible 2-mile track.” However, Twitter users who were upset with NASCAR’s decision to redesign the raceway soon began protesting in the comments section.

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The future of the Auto Club Speedway as per NASCAR 

It’s true that there is a whole lot of history associated with the Fontana Auto Club raceway. However, looking ahead into the future, NASCAR and the track authorities are hoping to create some new and grander memories at the revamped Auto Club raceway.

Excited about the prospects, track president Dave Allen was reported by NASCAR.com as saying,

“What we’re working on is really exciting. The fact that we race at a half-mile at Martinsville (Speedway) and Bristol (Motor Speedway), it’ll be cool to have another half-mile, especially out here on the West Coast with so much racing history here.”

Furthermore, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson also shared why he feels that a change is necessary. He said,

“I love that race track as-is. I feel like it produces amazing racing, but at the same time, I think we need more short tracks.

“I feel like … short tracks produce exciting racing, exciting finishes, tempers, stuff like that. I’m a proponent of making it a short track, and I think we need more of them.”

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Surely the final race at the Auto Club will definitely stir a lot of emotions for the NASCAR family. However, for the raceway, this could be the start of a wonderful journey.