NASCAR MOVING WEST.Byline: - Tim Haddock The NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Nextel Cup The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is NASCAR's top racing series. It was formerly known as the Strictly Stock Series (1949), Grand National Series (1950-1971), and the Winston Cup Series (1972-2003). Series race at California Speedway The California Speedway is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California, similar to that of "sister track" Michigan International Speedway. It is located approximately 40 miles east of Los Angeles on the site of the former Kaiser Steel mill. was a West Coast affair, and not simply because of its locale. The top-three drivers in Sunday's Auto Club 500 were all West Coast guys. Winner Greg Biffle is from Vancouver, Wash. Second-place driver Jimmie Johnson is from El Cajon and third-place driver Kurt Busch is from Las Vegas. ``Yeah, that's kind of neat,'' said Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Ford Taurus for Roush Racing. ``I never paid attention to that, but it was kind of fun.'' As part of NASCAR's realignment re·a·lign tr.v. re·a·ligned, re·a·lign·ing, re·a·ligns 1. To put back into proper order or alignment. 2. To make new groupings of or working arrangements between. , more races are moving out of the Southeast and heading West. California Speedway in Fontana was the first track to benefit from the new schedule, gaining a second race in 2004. This year, Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix International Raceway, or just PIR, is a one mile tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona. It opened in 1964, as the new home of major open-wheel racing in the Phoenix area, replacing the track at the Arizona State Fairgrounds as an automobile racing venue. and Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway is a superspeedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas -- the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The track layout is very similar to Atlanta Motor Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway (formerly Charlotte Motor will join Fontana with two dates, adding to NASCAR's move West. The number of West Coast drivers are increasing as well. Biffle, Busch and Johnson are part of that contingent. Robby Gordon, Casey Mears, Jason Leffler and Kevin Harvick are part of the California club racing on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. As exciting as it was at the end of the race for Biffle, he said one thing was missing: Kasey Kahne, another West Coast driver from Enumclaw, Wash. ``I wanted a chance to race with those guys some more, but I was excited to see the checkered flag,'' Biffle said. ``It's too bad Kasey Kahne had trouble. He's got a lot of talent, but things aren't going his way yet.'' |
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