Kern County Raceway Park is a oval

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

located on CA 43 (Enos Lane) just off Interstate 5 in

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Opened in 2013, it was built as a replacement for

Mesa Marin Raceway Mesa Marin Raceway was a paved oval race track, located near the junction of CA 178 and CA 184 (Kern Canyon Road), east of Bakersfield, California. It opened in 1977 and was owned by Marion Collins throughout its existence. The Collins fami ...

. Kern County Raceway Park hosts events with

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Whelen All-American Series The NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series (formerly the Whelen All-American Series, Winston Racing Series and the Dodge Weekly Series) is a points championship for NASCAR sanctioned local short track motor racing around the United States and Ca ...

along with a

K&N Pro Series West The ARCA Menards Series West, formerly the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, NASCAR AutoZone West Series, NASCAR Winston West Series and NASCAR Camping World West Series, is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racin ...

race since 2013. The track has banks of 8° in the straightaways, with 14° paved corners. The track has 5,000 seats for fans, and room to expand to 17,000 seats for various events. It also contains 21 suites in the grandstand along with 18 concession stands. The property also contains a

asymmetrical Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...

clay oval track, just north of the paved oval. Turns 1-2 are tighter than turns 3-4. The first event for this track was September 4, 2015. The clay oval track hosts rounds of the NARC King of the West Sprints and the USAC West Coast Sprints and Midgets. Northwest of the track is also a motocross motorcycle track.

History

The Collins family joined the DeStefani family in planning the new half-mile D-oval that replaced

. The track, located at the crossroads of

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

and State Route 43 (Enos Lane) along the

Kern River The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfiel ...

, broke ground in February 2007. The track features a progressively banked track, similar to its neighbor in the south,

Irwindale Speedway Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702 ...

, starting at 12 degrees on the bottom and rising to 14 degrees at the top. Turns 1-2 have an uphill climb to the backstretch, ten feet higher than the pit straight, for spectator visibility. Turns 3-4 feature a ten-foot descent. A 1/8-mile

dragstrip A dragstrip is a facility for conducting automobile and motorcycle acceleration events such as drag racing. Although a quarter mile (1320 feet, 402 m) is the best known measure for a drag track, many tracks are eighth mile (201&n ...

and a 1/4-mile infield oval are slated. The track, completed in March 2013, had its first NASCAR–sanctioned race on October 26, 2013, with the

. The track held a Fan Appreciation Day on May 4, 2013 and announced the first race to be held at Kern County Raceway Park would be a 100-lap

race on the main track. Bandoleros also competed that day on the track within the main course. Mini dwarf cars also ran on May 18, competing on the track.

Kern County Raceway Divisions

Kern County Raceway features local racing in 8 different divisions. These divisions include Pro Late Models, CITGO

Late Model A late model car is a car which has been recently designed or manufactured, often the latest model. (An early model car or classic car is a car old enough to be of historical interest; there is no usual intermediate term.) The precise definition ...

, Spec-Mods, Street Stock, Mini Stock,

Legends car racing Legends car racing is a style of auto racing designed primarily to promote exciting racing and to keep costs down. The race car bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by Yamaha XJ1250, FJ1200 ( ...

Bandolero racing Bandolero car racing is a type of entry-level racing in the United States and Canada. Many bandolero car drivers move into Legends racing. Cars can reach in excess of 70 mph, but do not accelerate very quickly. The most wins in Bandolero rac ...

and Mini-Dwarfs. During the 2013 season, Kern County Raceway also hosted a drifting exhibition, Super Trucks and Thunder Roadsters.

2013 season

The 2013 Season at Kern County Raceway included the return of the

SRL Southwest Tour The SRL Southwest Tour Series is a late model stock car racing league operating since 2001. The series is a continuation of the Tri-Track Challenge run in California between 1997 and 2000. The series is also connected to the former Supermodified Ra ...

to Kern County for the first time in 8 years. On October 26, 2013, Kern County Raceway also hosted the

race named the "NAPA Auto Parts 150."

2014 season

In addition to racing, Kern County Raceway also hosted its First Annual Car Show on March 22, 2014. The track also hosted the

for 2 races including the DC's RV Center 100 on April 5 and for the CITGO Lubricants Fall Shootout on November 1. The

also made two stops with the second one being nationally televised by

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

. In addition, it will host the first pavement sprint car national championship as the King Of The Wing series will be at the track on November 23.

Track Champions

References

External links

Kern County Raceway Park
{{coord, 35, 17, 34, N, 119, 15, 23, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title NASCAR tracks Motorsport venues in California History of Bakersfield, California Sports in Bakersfield, California