What does Kyle Busch’s victorious Fontana sendoff mean for RCR, NASCAR?

FONTANA, Calif. — Auto Club Speedway has an uncertain future, but at least Kyle Busch helped the two-mile version of the track go out with a bang.

Busch won for the first time in his second race with Richard Childress Racing. It was his first victory since the Bristol dirt race nearly a year ago and the first time he visited the winner’s circle on a paved track since Pocono Raceway’s June 2021 event.

It felt like Busch was destined to be a Joe Gibbs Racing lifer. He spent 15 years with JGR and won two Cup Series championships as the driver of the flagship No. 18 car. Busch is in the later years of his career, and although retirement isn’t imminent yet, it feels like he’s the kid who spent his whole childhood going to school in the same place but then had to leave town near the end of high school and try to make new friends somewhere else.

Busch’s move to RCR was unpredictable. There were plenty of reasons to think about why the change would work and why it wouldn’t.

Some wondered if Busch passed his prime. He hasn’t been as dominant in the 2020s as in the 2010s. Also, would RCR be capable of building fast enough cars for him? Tyler Reddick had a tremendous 2022 in the No. 8 and won three races with the team before departing for 23XI Racing. Austin Dillon has four career Cup wins in the famous No. 3 Chevy, but he hasn’t been a championship contender since entering NASCAR’s top level in 2014.

The last true RCR championship contender — excluding Ryan Newman’s shocking runner-up finish in the 2014 title despite going winless — was Kevin Harvick, who raced for the team from 2001-2013. He’s been at Stewart-Haas Racing for nine years, though. Since he’s been gone, the team struggled throughout the Gen 6 era and had winless seasons from 2014-2016, 2019, and 2021.

The Next Gen car helped level the Cup field, and RCR earned four wins in 2022. But when Reddick departed for 23XI Racing a year early, and Busch needed a new ride after realizing he wouldn’t return to JGR, it was hard to predict how the move might play out.

After two races, it’s clear that it’s going to work. And he just put any ideas that he’s lost his edge to bed.

Busch has always been strong at Auto Club, and it was the site of his first of 61 Cup wins when he was a Hendrick Motorsports rookie in 2005. He has five wins at the two-mile track, and that’s all he’ll ever get.

According to public documents, NASCAR reportedly sold 433 acres of land where Auto Club resides for over a half billion dollars. The sanctioning body retained 89 acres for plans to construct a half-mile track and use part of the current frontstretch as a curved straightaway on the new proposed track.

Fans and drivers have grown fond of the two-mile oval. It has never been repaved since its opening in 1997, and the worn surface has made it one of the most praised tracks in NASCAR. The asphalt is rough and cracked, allowing drivers to use multiple grooves while wearing out the tires to create falloff.

When news broke that the track would be reconfigured, many people within the industry were disappointed.

“I hate to see it go,” Chase Elliott said. “This is a great racetrack.”

“We always wanted to keep Atlanta as long as we possibly could, but there finally were chunks coming out of the racetrack,” Busch said. “It gets tough. This place here, there’s a lot of saw cuts out there.”

In a column by Nate Ryan of NBC Sports, several drivers, including A.J. Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Briscoe, lamented the idea of the track being torn down.

As bad as it is that the track will cease to be, it’s worsened by the fact that there potentially might not even be a new facility built on the land retained by NASCAR at all.

NASCAR says the construction process would take about two years. There will be no race in Southern California next year or possibly in 2025 unless the series finds a different venue to put on the schedule. Could The Clash at the Coliseum become a points race? Is Kern County Raceway Park an option? Would NASCAR explore adding a street course in the Los Angeles area? Is NASCAR ever coming back to SoCal after visiting various tracks over the years?

When Busch was asked how much longer the track could have held races if not for the sale of it, he said, “I don’t know.”

Whatever happens, Busch will be fond of his racing experiences at Auto Club. He also says a repave would have eventually been needed, though.

“The racetrack is pretty racy, but honestly, when you get about eight laps into a run, you don’t even go and bother with the bottom anymore. It’s Lanes 3, 4, 5, which is still plenty of racing room to get around here,” he said. “The seams are kind of bad, but actually where they put — I think it’s concrete patches at some of the places on the seams, those are super smooth and easy to go over. So if you just redid all the seams, maybe it would be fine.”

Losing the Los Angeles market isn’t exactly what NASCAR would like to have, but unless the plans for a new short track get in motion, the industry might have to suffer the loss. There has been a lot of uncertainty from NASCAR about the future of the sport in this region of the country.

“We need to be in Southern California. I think The Clash is kind of a cool exhibition opportunity where we get to be in LA, like really out over that way, but man, I was really pleased and happy with the crowd that came out today,” Busch said. “I thought that was awesome to see. There was a really good turnout for as cold as it was. I really thought people would shy away. But man, they came, so it was really good.”