The eye-appeal of Fontana is addictive–think of race cars against a desert backdrop of mountains and palm trees–and the two-mile D-oval, banked 14 degrees in the turns, is majestic in its scope. Despite its massiveness, Auto Club isn’t a restrictor-plate track, and with its breadth and its ultra-slick surface it lends itself to the kind of changeable, five-wide, thrills-a-minute racing that we saw on Sunday. The track is run as a pretty tight ship, with ample security and good crowd control–important when you’re dealing with a facility of this magnitude, though it can feel at times like you’re being herded just a little. Next year, in place of its twice-yearly NASCAR events, Auto Club will host only one Sprint Cup race in March. If you’re in the SoCal area, don’t miss it–it’ll be the only chance you’ll get for some local NASCAR action, and this gorgeous track is well worth the price of admission.

Head on over to the Events section to see a ton of photos from Sunday’s race!

I’ve never attended a Chase race before, and already, the vibe around the garage seems single-mindedly focused and pretty intense. Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race last night, the Roush Fords were fast in practice, and Jimmie is back on the march in the Drive For Five. I’m frankly kind of at a loss to pick a Champion winner at this point, because it still seems like it could be anyone’s game. Who is your pick for this year’s champ?

Dale Jr. of course didn’t make the Chase, though he’s celebrating his birthday today and there’s clearly at least some fans who feel a Sprint Cup win for Junebug would beat the hell out of a whole cakeful of candles–see this tribute car not-so-happy-birthday message after the jump.

NASCAR Taxi in downtown Chicago – Red Bull Racing

2010 Food City 250 – Kasey Kahne Near Flip

Stay tuned for NIOSH’s groundbreaking report on brain-cell loss caused by alcohol consumption during sporting events. Full story at aol.

Photo credit: Motorsports Images and Archives

The last couple of seasons in NASCAR have borne witness to some exceedingly spectacular wrecks–most notably Joey Logano’s magic carpet ride, Kasey Kahne’s near over-the-wall jump into the Pennsylvania foliage, and the ongoing aerial acrobatics between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. And this last weekend at Pocono, on the same grassy stretch where last June I’d photographed racing Cup cars at closer range than I’d ever seen them before, Elliott Sadler’s Ford hit the solid infield embankment hard enough to tear his entire engine and most of his front clip clear of his car. But, either miraculously or as a result of brilliant engineering, there hasn’t been a single fatality or even serious injury in Sprint Cup since that terrible day at Daytona.

For their part, the privately-owned tracks have been making major improvements as well. SAFER barrier’s been added, pit rows widened, track surfaces repaved. After the hellacious last-lap wreck involving Kahne in June, Pocono Raceway in particular has been planning some extensive improvements, including building closer retaining walls and eliminating some of the wide slippery stretches of grass that help off-course cars gather speed before they’re slammed into unprotected barriers, just as Sadler’s car did on Sunday. There’s been a lot of talk about safety, interestingly, at a time when the cars are safer than they ever have been. But perhaps more ominously, there’s also been a lot of talk about driver recklessness and apparent sense of invincibility amidst this new cocoon of safety: chillingly, the day after what’s being called the hardest hit ever recorded in Sprint Cup racing, Sadler says he’s got no qualms about getting back into a car he feels is virtually “indestructable.” What it all seems to add up to is that the luck that has smiled on NASCAR since the advent of the Car of Tomorrow can’t possibly hold, that the drivers are really pushing it, and that sooner or later, as history has shown, the sport will see a wreck that will end someone’s life.

What do you think? Has NASCAR reached some kind of magic tipping point where the racing is so safe that fatal wrecks are virtually not even possible? Or will it take another tragedy to drive home the point that hurtling through space in a sheet metal shell is dangerous no matter how you cut it?

Sadler, the following day, talks about his Pocono crash: