page_title: California Speedway
section_title: Early history and construction
hierarchical_section_title: California Speedway / Track history / Early history and construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Auto Club Speedway From Pit Road During Nationwide Series Qualifying
context_page_description: California Speedway, currently known as the Auto Club Speedway for sponsorship reasons, is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It is also used for open wheel racing events. The racetrack is located 47 miles east of Los Angeles and is near the former locations of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway. The track is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation. The speedway is served by the nearby Interstate 10 and Interstate 15 freeways as well as a Metrolink station located behind the backstretch.
  Construction of the track, on the site of the former Kaiser Steel Mill, began in 1995 and was completed in late 1996. The speedway's main grandstand has a capacity of 68,000, additionally it features 28 skyboxes and has a grand total capacity of 122,000. In 2006, a fanzone was added behind the main grandstand. 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.
  IndyCar previously ran a 400-mile race from 2002 to 2005 and a 500-mile race from 2012 to 2015.
context_section_description: On April 20, 1994, Roger Penske and Kaiser Steel announced the construction of a racetrack on the site of the abandoned Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana, California. A day after the announcement CART announced it would hold an annual race at the speedway. Three months later NASCAR president Bill France, Jr. agreed to sanction NASCAR Cup Series races at the speedway upon completion, marking the first time NASCAR made a commitment to run a race at a track that had yet to be built. Community meetings were held to discuss issues related to the construction of the track and the local effects of events held. The local community largely supported construction of the speedway citing potentially increased land values and rejuvenation of the community. In April 1995, after having toured the sister track Michigan International Speedway, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the project. The California Environmental Protection Agency gave Penske permission to begin construction after Kaiser agreed to pay US$6 million to remove hazardous waste from the site. Construction on the site began on November 22, 1995 with the demolition of the Kaiser Steel Mill. The 100-foot (30 m) water tower, a landmark of the Kaiser property, was preserved in the center of the track to be used as a scoreboard. 3,000 cubic yards (2,300 m³) of contaminated dirt was removed and transported to a toxic waste landfill. To prevent remaining impurities from rising to the surface, a cap of non-porous polyethylene was put down and covered with 2 feet (0.61 m) of clean soil. Construction of the track was completed in late 1996.
  On January 10, 1997 Marlboro Team Penske’s driver Paul Tracy became the first driver to test on the new speedway. NASCAR held its first open test session on at the track from May 5–7. The official opening and ribbon cutting ceremony was held on June 20, 1997 with the first race, a NASCAR West Series race, being held the next day.
caption: Main grandstand from pit road at Auto Club Speedway
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