Irwindale Speedway Shutting Down

Irwindale Speedway, considered by many to host the finest short track racing in the nation, appears to be history. On Saturday, workers appeared to be closing down the facility, which has had the biggest NASCAR short track races on the West Coast for more than a decade. Workers were dismantling the pit grandstand, which is adjacent to the first turn. They were also taking apart storage areas. The large billboard bordering the San Gabriel Valley River Freeway was not lit up for the first time in its history, barring power outages, and the track's website was taken off the Internet. "They went out of business," said a prominent Irwindale racer who did not want to be identified.

Vice president and general manager Bob DeFazio and some staff members were in the locked administration building Saturday morning, a moving truck backed up to the office's side entrance and a moving box stacked outside. DeFazio, through track operations director Bob Klein, refused to comment. Klein would only say an announcement would be made Monday. Opened in 1999 amid much fanfare, it featured a state-of-the-art track surface which cost several million dollars. Track CEO Williams, a former owner of Golden States Foods which supplies food to McDonald's and a pal and car builder for Roger Penske-driven IndyCars, said at the time that he wanted to rival the draw of the Dodgers. NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip called the facility the finest short track in America.

But it all came unraveling last season. Car counts were down significantly, nearly every division having the fewest racers since the track opened. More important, attendance was down. There were roughly only 900 people in the stands for a May 14 Saturday race. Attendance over the past two seasons has gradually dwindled. The track does not release attendance numbers, but an average of 1,800 people attended the 28 races last year.