Fantasy NASCAR Racing

completion, marking the first time NASCAR made a commitment to run a race at a track that had yet to be built.  The California Environmental Protection Agency gave Penske permission to begin construction after Kaiser agreed to pay $6 million to remove hazardous waste from the site.  Construction of the track began in 1995 and was completed in late 1996.  The first Cup race was held in June of 1997.  It was a distance of 500 miles.  The race saw 21 lead changes as Jeff Gordon would lead 113 laps and beat Terry Labonte to get the win.  From 1997-2006 the race saw ten different winners; with only Gordon having multiple wins (3).  With early success following the opening of the track, the speedway began to expand reserved grandstand seating along the front stretch with an additional 15,777 seats.  In May 1999, an additional 28 skyboxes were added to the top of the main grandstand.  In 2001 the Auto Club Dragway, a 1/4 mile dragstrip, was built outside of the backstretch of the main speedway.  Jimmie Johnson became the first driver to win back to back races.  He won in 2009 and 2010.  Lights were added to the speedway in 2004 with the addition of a second annual NASCAR weekend.  Since 2011, the track has hosted only one NASCAR weekend each year. Through 2020 the facility had hosted 31 Cup races.  To date there have been 18 different winners, with Johnson winning on six occasions.  The track failed to host it's race in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.  In 2020; due to NASCAR making plans to run more smaller tracks; it was revealed that documents for the reconstruction of the facility as a half-mile high banked oval had been planned.  The new track layout would feature long straightaways like Martinsville Speedway and high banked turns like those featured at Bristol Motor Speedway.  According to the published preliminary site plan, the new layout would fit inside the footprint of the current layout's trioval, and utilize much of the existing infrastructure such as the garages (which would be outside the new track), main grandstand and pit road suites.  The work is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2023 season.