Fontana Loses Second NASCAR Cup Date

I've seen this coming for awhile:

Then there's Los Angeles, that shining empire on the West Coast, the capital of the U.S. car culture and the center of automotive industry design. Seven consecutive sellouts in as many races led NASCAR to go all-in at California Speedway, sacrificing a race at one revered institution (North Carolina Speedway) and a weekend at another (Labor Day at Darlington Raceway) to add a second annual event to the Fontana track. But because of a combination of marketing missteps and over-expansion, attendance at the 2-mile oval dropped like a speedometer needle in rush hour on I-10. On Tuesday, Kansas Speedway will announce that it's adding a second annual date at the expense of Auto Club Speedway, which will go back to the single spring race it had so much success with originally.

The second race has been plagued with problems from the moment they put it on Labor Day Weekend. I think they had 100+ temperatures out there two years in a row, and when you add in the smog that's common that time of year, it's not a very pleasant place to be for the fans.

I'm kind of surprised they decided to give a second race to Kansas rather than give Kentucky a Cup date. Kentucky has state-of-the-art facilities, sells out every event, and was built in hopes of one day attracting a Cup date. However, there has been litigation between NASCAR and the Kentucky owners that has probably soured the relationship to the point that NASCAR won't give in.

With all the other things are to do in Southern California the locals here probably won't even notice the race has been taken away. And I'm sure the team hauler drivers will be glad to drive only half the distance to Kansas that they used to drive to California.

Fontana Cup Race to Move to October in 2009

Good new for us NASCAR fans in Southern California - the 2nd Cup race at Fontana will move from Labor Day weekend to October in the 2009 Cup season:

Auto Club Speedway president Gillian Zucker has not been shy in her desire to switch out the track's NASCAR Labor Day weekend race for a Chase for the Cup date.

Now, it appears her wish has been granted.

Auto Club Speedway is part of a three-track deal that will bring NASCAR to Fontana in October 2009, in the midst of the Sprint Cup's Chase for the Championship, according to a person familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Atlanta Motor Speedway will acquire the Labor Day weekend race, Auto Club Speedway will take Talladega Superspeedway's old date -- which is scheduled for early October this year, the fourth race in the Chase -- while Talladega will get Atlanta's date in late October.

NASCAR has scheduled a teleconference for tomorrow morning. It will include NASCAR President Mike Helton, Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed Clark, Talladega Superspeedway President Rick Humphrey and Zucker.

Auto Club Speedway has struggled to fill its seats for the Labor Day weekend race in recent years. Atlanta has done the same, and both track presidents have talked about the benefits of changing their race dates.

This move is good for two reasons: #1 it moves this race into the Chase for the Championship which will make it more exciting for the fans; and, #2 it will probably be 20-25 degrees cooler in October. That last two years it's been 105 and 103 degrees on race day, and that was enough to keep me from buying a ticket to go see the race. With the race in October there's always a slight chance of rain and a chance of Santa Ana winds, but the temperatures should be cooler for the fans and the participants.

A good move on the part of NASCAR and the California Speedway.

NASCAR Fontana Update

The submarine races (Sprint Cup) at Fontana are still going on at 9:00 pm PT Sunday night (the race was supposed to begin at 1pm this afternoon). Fox will broadcast the balance of the race at 10:00 pm PT. For those of you on the East Coast, good luck. They're planning to run the whole thing and they still have 165 laps to go.

The Nationwide race, which was postponed on Saturday due to rain and schedule to run one hour after the Cup race has been moved to 10:00 am PT Monday. I'll bet those drivers are just hating it.

UPDATE: The Sprint Cup race was pushed back to 11pm PT before finally being postponed to Monday at 10am PT thanks to persistant "weepers" on the track (no, not drivers who just wanted to go home, but water seeping up from below the asphalt). The poor guys in the Nationwide Series will have to wait until the conclusion of the Cup race before their can run their 300 miler.

I'll bet you won't have trouble finding a seat in Fontana on Monday.

UPDATE 2: Carl Edwards wins the Sprint Cup race, a race that took almost 24 hours to run.