NASCAR Could Race at Dodger Stadium

For most of the past 25 years, NASCAR’s Los Angeles-area home was a 2-mile oval in Fontana. Demolition of that track began after a 2023 race, and construction of a planned short track built on the property has still not been approved by series leadership. The series raced inside of the Los Angeles Coliseum in an exhibition race the past three years, but word in NASCAR circles suggests that the 2024 event may have been the venue’s last. That leaves NASCAR without a home in or near one of the country’s largest markets, but that might change soon.

Dodger Stadium, a baseball stadium on top of a hill surrounded by a massive parking lot that overlooks downtown Los Angeles, is among the candidates to replace both the Coliseum and the now-departed California Speedway, according to a report from Sports Business Journal. What that race could actually look like is unclear, but since NASCAR may currently be without a viable plan to race in L.A. in 2025, the plan could come together quickly.

If NASCAR does choose to use Dodger Stadium as its next Los Angeles venue, the series could opt to build another temporary oval inside of the stadium, set up a Miami GP-like street circuit around the parking lot, or possibly even create a track that weaves in and out of the stadium. When the ballpark’s lot was used as a COVID-19 testing and vaccination center in 2020, there was plenty of room for cars to wind through with space in the ‘infield’ for other facilities.

Oddly enough, NASCAR is far from the first series to consider Dodger Stadium as a home for auto racing. Formula E reportedly looked at Dodger Stadium as a possible venue for its most recent season. That still may happen in the future, but for now, the series is running both of its American races on the same weekend in Portland later this year. Before that, SCCA races were held in the parking lot throughout the early 1960s.

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