More Auto Club 500 Information

Southern California boasts some very large sports venues, but Auto Club Speedway's capacity is twice that of Angel Stadium; in fact, seating over 92,000, it is even larger than the Rose Bowl, and that's counting only the grandstands, not the suites and the infield full of hundreds of RVs. Opened in 1997, it was built on the site of the Kaiser Steel Mill; its water tower was left standing to commemorate the mill's shipbuilding contribution to World War II. Other marks of distinction are almost 300 palm trees and forming the horizon of the backstretch, the lofty Cucamonga Peaks.

Some well-established racing stars have distinguished themselves at Auto Club Speedway. Jeff Gordon has a record three victories, not to mention 412 laps as leader. Michael Waltrip has driven the most racing miles there: 6,690 miles in 21 NASCAR competitions. But the Speedway can be good to a rookie, too, at least if the rookie is Kyle Busch in 2005. Early in the season, Busch won the pole position for the Auto Club 500 and broke a record for qualifying by flying around the track at over 188 mph. In September, he topped that with his first Nextel Cup victory, the Sony HD 500, coincidently becoming the youngest driver to win a race at that level, being four days younger than Donald Thomas was when he had set that benchmark in 1952.