There’s Still Room for Track Improvement

FONTANA — Yes, that was California Speedway President Greg Penske out directing traffic Sunday morning in black jacket and tie, one of the many roles he took on for the main event of the inaugural weekend at the track.

“We had to get the traffic going, so I just helped the police a little,” he said in his state-of-the-track address, summarizing a weekend in which about 185,000 paying customers--he calls them guests, Disney-style--watched some form of racing.

Penske reeled off some improvements that will be the product of observation and querying some guests.

One of the improvements will involve traffic, which was difficult coming into the track and better going out, and California Speedway won’t have to do a thing to make it better.

“Just like us, the fans have a learning curve too,” Penske said. “This is the first race at a new facility, and people will get smarter.”

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Penske Motorsports solved one glitch with Saturday’s program when the trains taking passengers back to Los Angeles from the track had to leave before the International Race of Champions--which started late--was over.

About 35-40 “guests” didn’t get the word, or figured the race was too important to miss, and they were stranded at the track.

California Speedway solved the problem of angry customers by calling taxis for each, and paying their collective ways home, in one case to Palmdale, in another to San Diego.

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The Felix Sabates Chevrolet team--with pole-sitter Joe Nemechek, fourth-place qualifier Wally Dallenbach and Greg Sacks, who set the track record in second-day qualifying Saturday--struggled, for all that pre-race success.

Nemechek led the first lap and no other, finishing 18th, in large part because he hit a tire that had just been taken off Ken Schrader’s car, while trying to exit his own pit. That bent up the front of Nemechek’s car, necessitating some Band-Aid work with duct tape.

“It killed the aerodynamics of the car,” he said of the bent nose. “It just wouldn’t run down the straightaway. We were pretty good before that. We thought we could have a top-10 run, and we would have if we hadn’t had the problem.”

Dallenbach, who passed his teammate on Lap 2 and led six laps, suffered what he called a “flat” motor and finished 39th.

And Sacks, subbing for injured Robby Gordon, was 27th after spinning out in Turn 2 and causing the third of the race’s four caution flags.