UPDATE: Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen said Saturday that the track, in the midst of preparing for its final race on the classic 2-mile oval on Feb. 26, will not be on the 2024 NASCAR schedule.
Planning continues for a new half-mile short track located on the current site, along with additional property enhancements.
“Unfortunately, even with the most aggressive timeline, we will not race in 2024 on the new track,” Allen said in an interview at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of this weekend’s Busch Light Clash. “The timeline beyond that still has yet to be determined. There are just milestones we need to get through, not the least of which is the design of the race track. We’re still working on that. There are a lot of iterations we’re still designing, both on track and off track.
— NASCAR.com —
ORIGINAL POST 2-4-2023: Now there is talk of the Clash becoming a points race instead of an exhibition in 2024. The only points race in SoCal in 2023 is the Pala Casino 400 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Feb. 26. The two-mile oval is scheduled to undergo a reconstruction, however, that will reduce it to a half-mile track and could take as long as two years to complete. The Clash could fill the void.
NASCAR currently holds 36 Cup Series points races that count toward the championship. The Pala Casino 400 (previously called the Auto Club 400) has long been one of them. But NASCAR is facing the prospect of having no SoCal points race in 2024 and perhaps 2025 while the track’s reconstruction takes place.
One potential solution prompting discussion among NASCAR officials is to turn the Clash at the Coliseum into a points race and move it to the end of February after the Daytona 500, which is traditionally the first points race of the year.