Auto Club Speedway Superspeedway
The Auto Club Speedway is a NASCAR-owned and operated motorsports facility paved in 1997 on what used to be a steel mill in Fontana, California, an hour drive east from downtown Los Angeles. It was born with the name California Speedway, changing it later in 2008 as part of a sponsorship deal with the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC). There are several possible layouts in the racing complex, such as the NASCAR speedway oval, a sports car road course, a motorcycle course, and the inner test circuit. Fontana has excellent weather throughout the year, with pleasant temperatures, relatively low humidity, and scarce precipitations, making it an ideal place for high-performance racing.
The sports car road course is a 2.88-mile (4.63 km) layout that combines the NASCAR oval with an intricate infield section of the race track consisting of 19 turns and several straightaways. There are plenty of passing opportunities in the oval, where racers press the gas pedal hard the reach velocities as high as 150 mph (241 km/h). The other internal layout in the Auto Club Speedway is the infield road course, a 2-mile circuit that consists of straight segments and chicane-like turns.
The Superspeedway configuration at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California represents the facility's 2-mile D-shaped oval designed for high-speed stock car racing, distinguished by progressive banking ranging from 3 degrees in turns to 14 degrees creating multi-groove racing opportunities. The Superspeedway serves as Auto Club's primary configuration hosting NASCAR Cup Series and other major oval racing events. This layout emphasizes sustained high-speed running where cars exceed 200 mph through banked turns.
What distinguishes Auto Club's Superspeedway from typical intermediate ovals is the progressive banking that creates multiple racing grooves allowing drivers to run various lines through turns. Southern California's climate creates year-round racing potential though desert heat pushes track temperatures above 60C during summer. The Superspeedway configuration established Auto Club as Southern California's premier oval racing venue, serving NASCAR's West Coast presence with championship-level infrastructure near Los Angeles metropolitan area.
