Kevin Harvick: Fontana provides model for NASCAR schedule

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption NASCAR preview: Can Harvick keep rolling at Fontana? USA TODAY Sports' Brant James discusses the upcoming NASCAR race at Auto Club Speedway.

FONTANA, Calif. — Kevin Harvick believes NASCAR should reevaluate how many times the Sprint Cup Series visits each racetrack in a single season.

For example: Look at Auto Club Speedway, the site of Sunday's race.

ACS had one race per year from its inception in 1997 to 2003, with crowds so large the track had to build more grandstands. But once NASCAR started stopping in Fontana twice per year in 2004, the crowds started to decline; the capacity was reduced.

Since the track went back to one race per year again in 2011, the crowds have increased again.

"I think this racetrack is a great example of a lot of lessons that a lot of people obviously don't pay attention to that run racetracks," Harvick said Friday. "Sometimes, if you take one really great thing, you can really easily make them into two mediocres, and we do that all the time in our sport."

Harvick, who is riding a two-race winning streak after victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway, said "90%" of the places NASCAR visits are "one-race markets." But only 10 of the 23 tracks on the schedule have just one date.

"A lot of them still have two races and you just see those mediocre crowds," the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion said. "I think when people know that you're only coming one time a year, you have to go to that one particular race."

Having one race isn't the sole reason for the increase in the crowds at ACS, as Harvick acknowledged. The races for the past two years have been among the best of the season because the track surface has aged, allowing more lanes for drivers to race.



In addition, Harvick noted the weather is much better for Fontana's March date than when ACS hosted a Labor Day weekend race from 2004-08.

"Having a race with a good date is obviously good for the weather and the people to come out and enjoy it," said Harvick, one of 10 Californians in Sunday's race. "It's not 115 degrees in August, which was always fun to be a part of in the race car.

"But I think all in all, it's all come full circle and I think everything is going good for this particular track."

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