We are about to say goodbye to a trusted old friend.
Before everyone gets up in arms, Auto Club Speedway isn’t going away. But the configuration that has brought us so many memories is. Following its races this weekend, the track will be transformed into a half-mile short track after spending the first 26 years of life as a two-mile speedway.
With wide, sweeping, low-banked turns that encourage speeds over 200 mph, Auto Club has played host to epic battles, wild wrecks and thrilling finishes.
Let’s take a brief walk down memory lane of the track that has often been considered to be NASCAR’s best large oval.
No bigger moment defined the California Speedway (as it was originally called) layout than the 2013 NASCAR Cup Series race when Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano tussled in the waning laps.
The thousands in the stands and millions watching on TV gasped as both drivers crashed in the final corner, sending the onrushing Kyle Busch to victory lane.
The result was a severe back injury for Hamlin, an epic post-race brawl for Logano with Tony Stewart and his crew (where only minutes later Stewart would end up shouting obscenities directed at Logano into a live television microphone) and a return to Auto Club’s victory lane for Busch, who scored his first ever Cup win there back in 2004.
The moment was the pinnacle of the speedway’s history since its 1997 grand opening when all three national touring series descended on Southern California. Future Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won the inaugural Cup race, but it was the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series that found its special place in the early years of the track.
Between 1999 and 2001, Auto Club played host to the season finale of the Truck championship. The 1999 championship came down to the final race, where Jack Sprague scored the walk-off victory to beat Greg Biffle for the title by just eight points, the closest margin ever in pre-playoff history.
Speaking of championships, Auto Club also played host to Jimmie Johnson‘s first career Cup victory in 2002. Johnson went on to 83 victories (so far) and a record-tying seven championships.
Yet Johnson was denied Auto CLub glory again in 2011 when fellow California native Kevin Harvick nipped him by a car length after making the winning pass in the final corner. Johnson’s six wins will still stand up as the most ever by one driver in the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …