AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

Auto Club Speedway Race:

#5 3/27/201 Auto Club 400 3:00PM FOX
2010 Winner Jimmie Johnson




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What do movie stars and racing at 190MPH have in common?

The celebrities need NASCAR more than NASCAR needs the celebrities. Race fans will come out to watch racing regardless of what celebrities are there.

Don't get me wrong having a race in Southern California is also great for NASCAR. So great in fact that NASCAR stripped one of its oldest and most famous tracks, the Darlington Raceway of its second race so that Auto Club could have a second race weekend of its own.

And it wasn't just any race it was one of NASCAR's crown jewel events, the Southern 500 which was held every Labor Day weekend since 1950.

However in 2009 the Speedway swapped its Labor Day weekend race with the Atlanta Motor Speedway's October race weekend so that the Auto Club Speedway could have a race during 'The Chase'.

But in 2011 NASCAR took the fall race from Auto Club and the spring race from the Atlanta Motor Speedway in order to give the Kansas Speedway a second race weekend on the schedule and the Kentucky Speedway a new race weekend of its own.

The History

The speedway is located in Fontana California about an hour's drive from Los Angeles. And that exposes NASCAR to a huge market that it didn't have access to between 1987 and 1997.

The speedway was built on the site that once held the old abandoned Kaiser Steel mill.

More than ten tons of hazardous waste had to be removed from the site before construction could begin on the speedway.

Fontana was once an abandoned industrial steel mill town but is now considered a desirable suburb of Los Angeles.

The speedway was originally called the California Speedway but the name was changed in 2008 in a partnership agreement with one of the speedways long time corporate sponsors the Auto Club of Southern California.

The partnership agreement includes detailed plans for capital improvements and fan friendly amenities.

Recent Auto Club 500 Winners

2010 Jimmie Johnson
2009 Matt Kenseth
2008 Carl Edwards
2007 Matt Kenseth
2006 Matt Kenseth


The Racing

The Auto Club Speedway is a wide fast racetrack where cars can race three and four wide.

The cars can carry speeds of up to 200MPH going in to the corners but drivers can't stay on the throttle since it is a relatively flat speedway.

The turns are banked at 14 degrees with the frontstretch banked at 11 degrees.

Once the race cars have a few laps on their tires running three wide in the turns is much more difficult since the tires loose some of their grip so the cars tend to spread out.

Even though the cars spread out during the middle part of the race the great thing about a race here is that the cars bunch up at the end and it usually is a great finish.

The winner of race is not always the fastest car, sometimes the winner has the best fuel mileage or the best pit strategy.


Recent Pepsi 500 Winners

2010 Tony Stewart
2009 Jimmie Johnson
2008 Jimmie Johnson
2007 Jimmie Johnson
2006 Kasey Kahne


Not only the weather but the allure of Hollywood and surrounding area make coming to the races at the Auto Club Speedway and ideal vacation.

It is about an hour's drive from Los Angeles at the intersections of Interstates 10, 15 and 60 about 4 miles from the Ontario International Airport.

So come out to watch a race...You never know who you might see!

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