Clash at Coliseum could impact what happens at Auto Club Speedway

LOS ANGELES — Whether the Clash remains at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Sunday’s event could spur change at Auto Club Speedway.

NASCAR revealed plans in September 2020 to convert the 2-mile track in Fontana, California, into a half-mile bullring.  But when NASCAR goes there later this month, drivers will race on the big, wide, bumpy track that many enjoy because of how it challenges them. 

NASCAR President Steve Phelps said in November that officials were “hopeful” when asked if Auto Club would be a short track by 2023.

“Us adding another half-mile racetrack in a very important marketplace for us, I’ll call it the L.A. (metropolitan area), it’s important,” Phelps said then. “We have more fans in L.A., in that L.A. (metropolitan area), than any other (metropolitan area) in the country. It’s fertile ground.”

Yet, track president Dave Allen could not give a definitive answer this weekend of when the Auto Club’s change might take place. 

Asked Saturday if the track’s 2023 race will be on the half-mile configuration, Allen said: “Possibly. We don’t know that yet, either. Possibly. We’ll continue to treat it as if it is.”

After finishing second in Sunday’s Clash at the Coliseum before a crowd that appeared to be more than 50,000, Kyle Busch suggested Auto Club Speedway’s days as a 2-mile track are numbered.

“I would prefer the 2 mile, but I guarantee you it’s getting cut up, no question, after what we saw today,” Busch said.

During news conferences last November and today, @stevephelps and @daveatthetrack were asked about the future of @AutoClubSpdwy as a short track.

You can draw your own conclusions from what they said here below, but it's notable many answers pivoted to what is happening in L.A. pic.twitter.com/RYnpogibzk