The track measured exactly 2.000 miles under NASCAR and IndyCar sanctioning, with CART measuring it at 2.029 miles during its tenure there from 1997 to 2002. The main grandstand had a capacity of 68,000, with skyboxes and infield seating pushing total capacity to approximately 100,000 to 122,000 at various points in its life. Lights were added to the facility in 2004 to enable night racing. A 0.250-mile dragstrip called Auto Club Dragway was built outside the backstretch in 2001, and a multipurpose infield road course was configured the same year.
The track was built on the former Kaiser Steel Mill site in Fontana. Construction began in November 1995 and completed in late 1996. Roger Penske was the original developer and owner.
On February 21, 2008, the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC) paid an estimated $50 to $75 million for a ten-year naming-rights deal, renaming the facility Auto Club Speedway. The ACSC also received use of the track for road testing for Westways magazine and consumer test events. The deal was renewed and the Auto Club Speedway name remained in use through the end of the 2023 racing season.
During this era the track ran a single annual NASCAR Cup Series weekend each year, having dropped its second date with the 2011 schedule realignment after persistent attendance issues. Typical race-day capacities reflected a market that, despite being adjacent to the nation's second-largest metro area, consistently underperformed expectations. The Discover IE FanZone midway, added in 2006, and Exotics Racing's 1.2-mile road course, which opened at the facility in 2014, were among the amenities introduced to broaden the facility's appeal beyond race weekends.
The track produced some of the highest speeds ever recorded at a closed-course oval. At the 1997 CART Marlboro 500 — run before the Auto Club naming era — Mauricio Gugelmin set practice and qualifying records of 242.333 mph and 240.942 mph respectively. Gil de Ferran's 241.428 mph qualifying run at the 2000 Marlboro 500 remained the fastest official qualifying lap at any motorsport race meeting as of 2023. The 2003 Toyota Indy 400 set a record for the fastest average circuit race speed in history at 207.151 mph over 400 miles.
Canadian CART driver Greg Moore was fatally injured in a crash during the 1999 Marlboro 500 when his car struck an infield pavement edge and hit a concrete wall. The incident led track owner ISC to pave the backstretch infield grass at both this facility and its sister track Michigan International Speedway, and accelerated mandatory adoption of head-and-neck restraints in American open-wheel racing.
The final NASCAR Cup race was held in 2023. The Auto Club Speedway name was discontinued after the naming rights expired in March 2023. The track was then closed as part of the Next Gen California reconstruction project, which aimed to convert the site to a high-banked half-mile short track. Demolition began in October 2023. By 2025, 433 of the original 522 acres had been sold for industrial and warehouse development. As of April 2025, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps stated the reconstruction project was on hold due to construction costs and other priorities.
Gallery · 4 related images
