NASCAR has not held a points-paying race in Southern California since the 2023 season. When this will happen again remains unclear due to a significant reconfiguration project remaining on hold.
According to the Los Angeles Times, NASCAR does not know when it will bring its national series back to Southern California or where any races will take place. California Speedway was torn down after Kyle Busch won the final Cup race at the facility in 2023. The track was supposed to be reconfigured into a half-mile oval, but this has not yet happened.
"The plan is to be there," said Dave Allen, NASCAR's West Region president, per the Times. "But if opportunities come up, we're open to anything. 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."
NASCAR's history in Southern California features trips to multiple tracks. From 1958 to 1988, the Cup Series raced at Riverside International Raceway with drivers such as Rusty Wallace, Tim Richmond, Dan Gurney, and Cale Yarborough, among others, winning races.
From 1971 to 1980, the Cup Series raced at Ontario Motor Speedway. AJ Foyt, Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, and Neil Bonnett all won races at the 2.5-mile track.
From 1997 to 2020, NASCAR ran at least one Cup Series race in Southern California. The track known as Auto Club Speedway hosted these events as drivers such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, and Alex Bowman won races.
COVID-19 forced NASCAR to cancel the 2021 race to the 2-mile track, but it returned in 2022 and '23 as Kyle Larson and Busch won races. Crews began demolition after Busch's win.
NASCAR quickly sold 433 of the 525 acres it owned on the site of the now-defunct track. This left 92 acres for NASCAR to build this proposed half-mile short track.
The Cup Series teams still returned to Southern California in 2024. They held the third iteration of the Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum. However, that exhibition event also left the western state as NASCAR took the Clash to Bowman Gray Stadium to kick off the 2025 season.
California remains an important market for NASCAR, so the expectation is that the Cup Series will return at some point. A race on a reconfigured track could be an option, but rumors have persisted about a potential street race in San Diego.
For now, fans and teams will simply wait to learn if this return will actually happen.
"The market is extremely important to NASCAR," Allen told the Times. "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."
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