Auto Club Property Sold: The Short Track is Official

For a short period of time over the last couple of months, fans of the 2-mile fast track in Fontana had some hope. Plans were not "official" for the renovation despite knowing this has been coming for quite some time. Rumors swirled about a simple repave. Friday morning, The Sports Business Journal's Adam Stern broke the news, 433 of the approximately 522 acre site have been sold in a guesstimated "nine figure" sale price. Quick math, that's in the hundreds of millions. 

The plan has been for a while now for NASCAR to build a 1/2 mile short track on the remainder of the property. The exact look of the track and layout is not yet official, but the image above seems to be the layout as of now. NASCAR plans to invest much of the proceeds of the real estate transaction into the fan experience at the new updated track. This could be huge as NASCAR has seen a major amount of success it has seen after it's 2 LA Coliseum events in 2022 & 2023. The fan experience is one of the major complaints from fans across the sport when it comes to current facilities. 

NASCAR has already made the fandom aware that they will not have Short Auto Club on their schedule for 2024. With today's political, financial and supply chain climates, we have to hope to see the track on track for a 2025 inaugural date. (Like what I did there?)

9-figures could create a world class racing facility in southern California. One that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world with any motorsport. Here is to hoping they do this right. 

By: Tom Luttermoser