Auto Club Speedway

When Danica Patrick became a rookie sensation in 2005 in what is now the Izod IndyCar Series, she capped the year with a race in Southern California. Five years later, IndyCar's most popular driver might make her NASCAR stock-car racing debut at the same location. Patrick, who recently announced plans to try stock-car racing on a limited basis next year in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, said Thursday that she plans to enter the Feb. 20 Nationwide race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

Helio Castroneves has won the Indianapolis 500 three times, earned 27 career victories overall and he even placed first in the "Dancing with the Stars" contest one year. But there's one thing missing from the veteran driver's resume: an IndyCar championship. Hoping to fill the void this year, Castroneves is leading the Izod IndyCar Series standings entering the 39th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday. "I'm really pushing and the good news is we have a great team," Castroneves, 37, said of Team Penske, whose other driver is Australian Will Power, the 2012 Long Beach winner who narrowly lost the IndyCar title last year.

Speculation is mounting that Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, which has seen sagging attendance for its two Sprint Cup Series races each year, might lose one of the stock-car events as NASCAR prepares to shuffle its schedule for 2011. Nothing was confirmed as of Wednesday, but NASCAR is putting the final touches on the schedule for its premier 36-race series and NASCAR Chairman Brian France recently said "we'll have some pretty impactful changes." They could be announced as early as next week.

When we last saw NASCAR in action, at Fontana, there was a last-lap crash among the leaders, a post-race brawl between Joey Logano and Tony Stewart, and an ambulance was taking away an injured Denny Hamlin. Now, after a week off for Easter, the Sprint Cup Series heads to the cramped, half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for its next race Sunday. And all eyes will be on Logano and Stewart to see if their feud surfaces again. "You have to know what's going on and watch out for the dramas," driver Ryan Newman told reporters Tuesday.

Another year, another poor finish for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Auto Club Speedway. The most popular driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series had hoped to reverse his record at the Fontana track Sunday after his second-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. But after starting 27th on the 43-car grid for the Auto Club 500 and climbing to 21st early in the race, Earnhardt was penalized for speeding on pit road, dropping him deep into...

IndyCar racing will return to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on an as yet unspecified date in the fall of next year, the track announced late Monday. The Izod IndyCar Series, which features such drivers as Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves , initially competed on the two-mile oval after it was built in the mid-1990s. But the series hasn't raced there since 2005. The return of IndyCar will help the track make up for the loss of a second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock-car race, which was removed from the Cup schedule this year.

Auto Club Speedway's reported proposal to raise the corner banking and make other changes to the two-mile Fontana track drew a wary response from some NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Friday. "There is nothing wrong with the racetrack out there," said Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion and three-time winner at Fontana. "I think it's a great track," he said. "If they're not packing the stands, that's not it, maybe it's something else. There's just so many options of things to do" in Southern California, he said.

Auto Club Speedway proposed a multimillion-dollar revamp of the Fontana track to foster closer racing and boost crowds at its two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup races, but the track's owner has taken no action on the plan, The Times has learned. The plan called for raising the banking of the track's four turns to 23 degrees from the current 14 degrees and narrowing its width in certain sections, all to bring the cars closer together and promote more passing, according to motor racing sources familiar with the proposal who agreed to speak on the condition that they not be identified.

Kyle Busch hails from Las Vegas, but Fontana is like his second home — at least when he's sitting in a NASCAR Nationwide Series car. Busch outdueled Sam Hornish Jr. on Saturday to win the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway, Busch's sixth victory in the last eight Nationwide races at the two-mile Fontana track. Hornish finished second, Regan Smith was third and Parker Kligerman finished fourth. Austin Dillon was fifth and 20-year-old rookie Kyle Larson finished sixth. Busch, 27, mainly drives in NASCAR's premier Sprint Cup Series but also races in the second-level Nationwide Series, although he doesn't earn driver championship points in the Nationwide Series.

Looking across the expansive grandstands at Auto Club Speedway and seeing more than enough pockets of red and yellow benches with no one sitting in them would be cause for concern for most. But Gillian Zucker , speedway president and the person whose job it is to make this racetrack a success, brought with her the required optimism of someone trying to sell this sport. "This is exactly how you want to welcome the Chase to Southern California," Zucker said. "These fans have really made a statement.

J.D. Gibbs, president of Denny Hamlin's NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing, said Thursday he did not think Hamlin's crash with Joey Logano that left Hamlin with a back injury was a form of payback by Logano because the drivers have been feuding. "My personal take is that I think Joey was just really trying to make a point, he was pushing it" as the two raced side by side for the win on the last lap of Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Gibbs told reporters on a conference call.

Signaling that its "boys, have at it" policy remains in effect, NASCAR on Tuesday declined to penalize any of its drivers after the wild finish Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. The climax to the Auto Club 400 featured the feuding drivers Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin colliding and crashing on the last lap as they battled for the win, which went to Kyle Busch. There also was a post-race shoving match between Logano and three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, who was furious about an earlier blocking move by Logano.

NASCAR's Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano have exchanged text messages in the aftermath of their crash last weekend that sidelined Hamlin with an injured back, Logano's team owner Roger Penske said Wednesday. Penske said he's also sent text messages to Hamlin, a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing who's expected to miss about six weeks after suffering the injury Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. "I've texted back and forth with him and said that we're thinking about him," Penske told Associated Press in Humble, Texas, where Penske and Logano were playing in the pro-am leading up to the PGA Tour's Houston Open.

NASCAR on Tuesday said it would not penalize Joey Logano, Tony Stewart or any other driver following the wild finish to the race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Logano and Denny Hamlin, who already were feuding, collided on the last lap of Sunday's Auto Club 400 as they raced for the win. Both cars spun and Hamlin slammed into an inside retaining wall, with Hamlin suffering a lower-back injury that could sideline the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Soon afterward, Stewart -- angry at how Logano blocked him on the race's final restart -- got into a shoving match on pit road and they had to be separated by their crews.

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower back in the last-lap crash in Fontana, his team said Monday. Hamlin, who has a history of back problems, damaged his L1 vertebra after his car slammed head-on into the inside wall at Auto Club Speedway during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin, 32, hoped to be released from a nearby hospital Monday to fly home to North Carolina, his team Joe Gibbs Racing said. The Cup series doesn't race again until April 7, at Martinsville (Va.)

NASCAR drivers are too vanilla. Racing at Auto Club Speedway is too boring. The sport's new car isn't racy enough. Tell that to the 80,000-plus fans who jammed into the Fontana track Sunday. They watched what might go down as the wildest, most entertaining NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season, and there are still 31 races to go. Feuding drivers Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin were in a thrilling side-by-side duel when they crashed into each other on the last lap. Kyle Busch streaked past them for the win as the crowd erupted.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Southern California a year ago was hampered by rain that caused numerous delays and frustrated fans, drivers and track officials. Now the sport and the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana are about to be tested again, this time by an economic storm -- and a big question is how many stock car racing fans will weather it by showing up.

Kyle Busch hails from Las Vegas, but Fontana is like his second home - at least when he's sitting in a NASCAR Nationwide Series car. Busch outdueled Sam Hornish Jr. on Saturday to win the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway, Busch's sixth victory in the last eight Nationwide races at the two-mile Fontana track. Hornish finished second, Regan Smith was third and Parker Kligerman finished fourth. Austin Dillon was fifth and 20-year-old rookie Kyle Larson finished sixth. Busch, 27, mainly drives in NASCAR's premier Sprint Cup Series but also races in the second-level Nationwide Series, although he doesn't earn driver championship points in the Nationwide Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. still hasn't won at Auto Club Speedway, but he left the Fontana track Sunday leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Earnhardt finished second in the Auto Club 400 after the last-lap crash knocked out leaders Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin , giving Earnhardt his fifth top-10 finish in as many races this season. "I was just glad to get through" the wreck "and get a good run," Earnhardt said. "We had a good car all day. " Earnhardt started 15th and struggled at times but rebounded in the closing stages after his Hendrick Motorsports team made adjustments to his No. 88 Chevrolet.