Track plans to completely cover frontstretch, backstretch with SAFER barrier
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Auto Club Speedway announced Thursday that it will install tire pack inside Turn 1 prior to next weekend’s NASCAR national series doubleheader.
A “full track review” with NASCAR and the track’s parent company, International Speedway Corporation, led the Fontana, California facility to add the barriers for the XFINITY Series Drive4Clots300.com (March 21, 4 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) and the Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 (March 22, 3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
“The safety of drivers, and our fans and staff is, and always has been, a top priority,” Auto Club Speedway President Dave Allen said in a track release. “As part of our continued commitment to safety, we will work hand-in-hand with NASCAR and all sanctioning bodies that race at our track to make improvements that will further enhance safety.”
After the Auto Club 400 race weekend and before the start of its 2016 racing season, the track will install Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barrier so the entire frontstretch and backstretch will be covered by SAFER barrier.
Two years ago, Denny Hamlin missed four races with a compression fracture in his lower back after hitting an unprotected wall at the entrance to pit road while battling Joey Logano for the win on the last lap of the 2013 Auto Club 400. The facility added SAFER barrier to that section of the track following the accident.
“The race on the West Coast that I look forward to the most is Fontana,” Hamlin said before the season. He missed last year’s race at the track after a piece of metal in his eye forced him out of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.
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