Irwindale Drag Strip
Nothing leftNothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains.
- Jay Leno crashed as a passenger in Bob Riggle's "Hemi Under Glass" wheelstander there in 2016
- Raced
- 2001-24
- State
- California
- What's left
- The site was redeveloped and nothing of the strip remains.
- First race
- December 2001
- Last race
- December 21, 2024
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Location
- Irwindale Speedway
- People
- Tim Huddleston, co-owner (until 2022)
- Lisa Huddleston, co-owner (until 2022)
- Bob Bruncati, co-owner (until 2022)
- Maureen Bruncati, co-owner (until 2022)
- Elevation
- 372 ft (113 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.10938, -117.98736
Irwindale Speedway opened in 1999 for oval and NASCAR racing and began running street-legal eighth-mile drag races in December 2001. On August 16, 2002, a shooting at a drag race there made news across the country. An argument between two spectators in the grandstands drew in more than a dozen people before a man pulled a semiautomatic handgun and opened fire, killing one man and wounding two teenagers. Toyota bought the speedway’s naming rights in 2008. The speedway filed for bankruptcy in February 2012, and the 2012 season was canceled. In 2016 Jay Leno was riding in Bob Riggle’s “Hemi Under Glass” wheelstander on the drag strip when Riggle, 80, lost control and crashed, a moment shown on “Jay Leno’s Garage.” Co-owners Tim and Lisa Huddleston and Bob and Maureen Bruncati sold the property in 2022. The last drag race was on December 21, 2024, and the 63-acre property was slated to become an industrial park.
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