NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps casts doubt on Fontana redevelopment

The newly named Commissioner, Steve Phelps, started this week off with a bit of a wet blanket on the future of NASCAR at Fontana. Right now, the plans for a future track at Frontana are being put on hold.

With a $300,000,000 price tag, at least, building a new short track won’t be cheap for NASCAR. Commissioner Steve Phelps gave fans a little bit of insight on the future of the project and it doesn’t bode well for those who want to see racing return to the area soon.

On Hauler Talk with Nate Ryan, Mike Forde, and Amanda Ellis, Phelps was asked about Fontana. To his credit, he was very honest about the project, perhaps the most honesty we have received in the last two years.

“I think, you know, Nate, that market and I’ve said it to you before is an important market for us,” Phelps told the podcast hosts. “What the future of that particular facility is, I’m still unsure. Would I like to build a new facility at Fontana? I would. And I think, you know, having – it would be a short track because we don’t have room for anything else, frankly.

“Do I think creating a short track out there would be a cool thing for us? Yes. With that said, it’s $300,000,000 to build that facility. Is that the best use of that money? That is the big question. The cost of capital right now is still really high, so for us to press pause, is essentially what we’re doing. Trying to be as transparent about that as possible. But yeah, I’d love to build a facility out there. When that is going to happen or if that’s going to happen, I don’t have a timeline.”

It feels like NASCAR is in between a rock and a hard place with Fontana. I’m sure that the recent tariff news and economic worries of the last day or so are not going to build anyone’s confidence in this project.

Then there is the price tag on all of this. Yes, it is expensive, but will building costs ever go down in California? Again, I’m not the one to tell anyone how to spend $1, let alone $300,000,000. It just doesn’t feel like this theoretical short track is ever going to get off the ground.

NASCAR at Fontana put on so many great races. Now, there is no guarantee we will ever see racing there again. Starting to look like NASCAR fans’ worst nightmare is coming true regarding this project.