Latest news with #ClashattheColiseum
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR figuring out if building new track in Fontana is the 'right thing to do'
NASCAR remains committed to bringing stock car racing back to Southern California. But it admitted this weekend it is still not sure where and when that will happen. 'The market is extremely important to NASCAR,' said Dave Allen, NASCAR's West Region president. 'So we're not abandoning the market. What we don't have is a firm timeline yet. There's some things within the sport that need to get sorted before we can make some strategic decisions as it relates to what we're what we're going to build. 'We're going to do something. I just don't know what and when yet.' Allen spoke before Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway, where Christopher Bell notched his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win by holding off a hard-charging Denny Hamlin on the final restart with two laps to go. With the exception of 2021, when the schedule was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR has run at least one race in Southern California every year since 1997, when Auto Club Speedway opened on the site of the old Kaiser steel mill in Fontana. That streak will end this year. Read more: NASCAR wants to race again in Southern California, but when will it happen? Auto Club Speedway, which has been torn down, played host to its final race in 2023 while the Clash at the Coliseum, run on a temporary half-mile track installed atop the Coliseum's football field, did not return this winter after three years. NASCAR had hoped to race on a half-mile oval being built on the site of the former Fontana speedway, but that project has stalled. 'That's option No. 1,' said Allen, the former president of Auto Club Speedway. 'Obviously, we've been there for a long time. We still retain enough land to build a half-mile oval if we chose to do that. 'But we still need some time to sort some things out and figure out if that's the right thing to do.' In the meantime, NASCAR is embracing concepts outside traditional race tracks. The series debuted a street race in Chicago in 2023 and has reportedly considered racing on the streets of San Diego as well. 'We're always looking for new opportunities,' Allen said. 'We're always looking for either new markets or things that we can do different in a market that we're already [in]. 'We're trying to leave all options open.' Ten days after the final race in Fontana, NASCAR reportedly sold 433 of the 522 acres that comprise the venue's footprint to Ross Perot Jr.'s Dallas-based Hillwood Development company and CBRE Investment Management for approximately $569 million. The site is being converted into a logistics facility and industrial park with 6.6 million square feet of warehousing spacing. A generation ago there were more than a dozen race tracks holding regular events across Southern California, but with the closing of Irwindale Raceway last year, just a handful remain. Many, such as Irwindale and the Auto Club Speedway, sat on land that had become too valuable, part of a nationwide trend that has seen the ground sold out from beneath iconic short tracks in places such as Greenville, S.C., and Midland, N.C., the heart of stock-car country. 'The land and the cost of doing business, when you have a facility like we had in Fontana, it's very, very challenging,' Allen said. 'At the end of the day we're a for-profit company and we have to make decisions that are good for the business so we can keep it going.' Read more: Irwindale Speedway closure the latest blow to racing in Southern California The ideal solution, Allen said, is the original one. NASCAR retained approximately 90 acres of Auto Club Speedway's massive footprint, including the main grandstands, front straight, pit road and pit road suites. Those were all to be incorporated into the new short-track venue. 'The plan is to be there. But if opportunities come up, we're open to anything,' Allen said. 'If you had 300 acres and wanted to build a racetrack and be a partner with us, then we would listen. So I think it's keeping the property warm and being able to do different things with it. And you adjust depending on the market and needs of the market. 'We're kind of just in a holding pattern.' Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
10-03-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
NASCAR figuring out if building new track in Fontana is the ‘right thing to do'
AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR remains committed to bringing stock car racing back to Southern California. But it admitted this weekend it is still not sure where and when that will happen. 'The market is extremely important to NASCAR,' said Dave Allen, NASCAR's West Region president. 'So we're not abandoning the market. What we don't have is a firm timeline yet. There's some things within the sport that need to get sorted before we can make some strategic decisions as it relates to what we're what we're going to build. 'We're going to do something. I just don't know what and when yet.' Allen spoke before Sunday's Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway, where Christopher Bell notched his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win by holding off a hard-charging Denny Hamlin on the final restart with two laps to go. With the exception of 2021, when the schedule was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR has run at least one race in Southern California every year since 1997, when Auto Club Speedway opened on the site of the old Kaiser steel mill in Fontana. That streak will end this year. Auto Club Speedway, which has been torn down, played host to its final race in 2023 while the Clash at the Coliseum, run on a temporary half-mile track installed atop the Coliseum's football field, did not return this winter after three years. NASCAR had hoped to race on a half-mile oval being built on the site of the former Fontana speedway, but that project has stalled. 'That's option No. 1,' said Allen, the former president of Auto Club Speedway. 'Obviously, we've been there for a long time. We still retain enough land to build a half-mile oval if we chose to do that. 'But we still need some time to sort some things out and figure out if that's the right thing to do.' In the meantime, NASCAR is embracing concepts outside traditional race tracks. The series debuted a street race in Chicago in 2023 and has reportedly considered racing on the streets of San Diego as well. 'We're always looking for new opportunities,' Allen said. 'We're always looking for either new markets or things that we can do different in a market that we're already [in]. 'We're trying to leave all options open.' Ten days after the final race in Fontana, NASCAR reportedly sold 433 of the 522 acres that comprise the venue's footprint to Ross Perot Jr.'s Dallas-based Hillwood Development company and CBRE Investment Management for approximately $569 million. The site is being converted into a logistics facility and industrial park with 6.6 million square feet of warehousing spacing. A generation ago there were more than a dozen race tracks holding regular events across Southern California, but with the closing of Irwindale Raceway last year, just a handful remain. Many, such as Irwindale and the Auto Club Speedway, sat on land that had become too valuable, part of a nationwide trend that has seen the ground sold out from beneath iconic short tracks in places such as Greenville, S.C., and Midland, N.C., the heart of stock-car country. 'The land and the cost of doing business, when you have a facility like we had in Fontana, it's very, very challenging,' Allen said. 'At the end of the day we're a for-profit company and we have to make decisions that are good for the business so we can keep it going.' The ideal solution, Allen said, is the original one. NASCAR retained approximately 90 acres of Auto Club Speedway's massive footprint, including the main grandstands, front straight, pit road and pit road suites. Those were all to be incorporated into the new short-track venue. 'The plan is to be there. But if opportunities come up, we're open to anything,' Allen said. 'If you had 300 acres and wanted to build a racetrack and be a partner with us, then we would listen. So I think it's keeping the property warm and being able to do different things with it. And you adjust depending on the market and needs of the market. 'We're kind of just in a holding pattern.'
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
How NASCAR Found Its Way to Bowman Gray Stadium
The much-hyped NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray exhibition is at the sport's shortest and oldest track. Bowman Gray is a quarter-mile bullring that's been hosting races for 86 years. The race replaces the Clash at the Coliseum that was held in Los Angeles. 'If you build it, (they) will come.' And will keep coming as long as there are cars to race and men to race them. Indeed, Sunday night's 200-lap Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is NASCAR's version of Field of Dreams. The much-hyped exhibition is at the sport's shortest and oldest track, a quarter-mile bullring that's been hosting races for 86 years. In the late 1930s, as America recovered from the Great Depression, the new Public Works Administration was part of FDR's 'New Deal.' Its mission was to boost the economy by having unemployed workers build roads, bridges, airports, and public facilities. One of its projects was a sports complex in Winston-Salem, N.C. It was named Bowman Gray Stadium to honor a local philanthropist and president/chairman of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. It opened in 1937 for college and high school football, and for running events on its quarter-mile dirt track. It later hosted harness racing and later still… automobile racing. An open-wheel Midget series debuted in 1939 and ran for 11 years. The quarter-mile track was paved in 1947, and NASCAR's new Convertible Series visited a year later. Even while running weekly shows, the facility hosted 29 Cup races from 1959 through 1971, the last of NASCAR's 'long seasons.'. The roster of Cup winners those 13 years is impressive: Hall of Fame drivers Rex White (6 victories), Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, and Glen Wood (4 each), David Pearson (3), Bobby Allison (2), and Lee Petty (1). Bob Welborn, Marvin Panch, Jim Paschal, Jim Reed, and Johnny Allen also won in races featuring only one or two lead changes. The Convertible Series saw Welborn, Wood, and Curtis Turner win. Current-day Cup drivers with K&N experience there include Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Cody Ware, Daniel Suarez, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, and former champions Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. And NASCAR executive vice-president Ben Kennedy—great grandson of Bill France Sr.—won a K&N race there in 2012. So, it seemed appropriate for Kennedy to announce last summer that Bowman Gray Stadium would host this year's Clash. 'This is the next evolution of the Clash,' he told fans during a Saturday night program. 'One of the areas where there's an opportunity to continue to switch it up and go to new markets is an exhibition like the Clash. This will be an opportunity to celebrate our roots, our history, and our regional series. The energy there is palatable; the fans bring it every week.' We say again: 'If you build it, (they) will come.' All 17,000 tickets were snatched up shortly after Kennedy's announcement. NASCAR has since launched a media and PR campaign unlike anything since the 1994 Brickyard 400. FOX-TV will be there, along with Motor Racing Network, the Fubo TV streaming service, and the NASCAR channel on SIRIUS XM Radio. The media turnout likely will outnumber some at Cup races. After 43 years in Daytona Beach and three in Los Angeles, the exhibition more closely resembles weekly grass-roots racing. NASCAR bought GBS track last year and spent $10 million on upgrades. The investment was for both the Clash and the weekly shows that draw huge, raucous crowds. The upgrades include SAFER barriers and new Musco lighting. As usual here recently, this Clash will be unlike anything Cup drivers see during their regular season. Nine practice sessions, four heats, a last-chance qualifier, and 2024 points will set the 23-car grid. The top five from each 25-lap heat and the top two from the 75-lap last chance qualifier are in. The 23rd starter will be 2024's highest-ranked driver not already in the show. As with anything new, opinions vary. Preece, entering his first year at Ford-based RFK Racing, is thrilled. 'Look at the (winners') names, and adding my name to the (Cup) list would be special,' said Preece, a Modified winner in 2013. 'Look at the history behind (where) NASCAR was pretty much born. As much as it's an exhibition, anybody who says he doesn't want to win is lying.' Team co-owner Eddie Wood was nine when his father, Glen, got his four Cup victories at Bowman Gray in the early 1960s. The aptly-named 'Madhouse' remains dear to 75-year-old Wood Brothers Racing, which is fielding Fords for newcomer Josh Berry this season. 'It's special to me,' Eddie said. 'When I heard they were thinking about going there, I thought, 'Man, that's the coolest thing ever.' There's something about the Stadium that brings out the worst or the best in people since everybody is amped up about doing well there.' His brother, co-owner Len, feels much the same way. 'It brings back the history of everything our family did, what daddy did in particular,' he said. 'The oldest dated trophy we have is 1952 at Bowman Gray, where daddy won 29 races in Modified, Sportsman, Convertibles and Cup. We have a long history there.' Few dislike BGS for the Clash, but retired Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. hates its eligibility standards. At its 1979 debut, only the previous year's pole-winner ran the Clash. But short fields lacking fan favorites didn't fly, especially with sponsors. In response, NASCAR repeatedly tinkered with the eligibility criteria until finally deciding to just invite everybody. That's the part that troubles the sport's (still) most popular personality. 'I wish it was just pole winners, when the criteria to get in was more exclusive,' Junior said. 'Like, 'hey, these guys did this to earn it'; but it's not. I don't see that, don't feel that anymore. You can't be blind to long-term repercussions by just looking at short-term gains.' Despite his stance, the two-time Clash winner isn't going change anyone's mind. NASCAR uses the Clash to promote itself, and leaving popular stars on the sidelines just isn't in their playbook. With 39 entries going for 23 spots … let the fun begin.
