Toyota Speedway Releases 09 Events

Season opening January 23-24 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown and season closing November 26 USAC Turkey Night Grand Prix among 2009 schedule highlights.

IRWINDALE, Calif. – TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale released its 2009 oval track schedule today featuring a diverse lineup of activities which includes the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown and the 69th Running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix – events that will kick off and conclude the 2009 North American Motorsports calendar. Additional event dates and racing series may be added to the schedule and announced at a later date. The schedule features events sanctioned by NASCAR, Formula Drift, USAC, ASA, WCPT and the SRL.

The prestigious NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown is slated for January 23-24 and is considered the ‘Daytona 500 of short-track racing’. The event features two days of racing action among some of nation’s greatest short-track drivers in NASCAR Camping World Series and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition as well as drivers from other NASCAR series.

TOYOTA Speedway’s NASCAR Weekly racing series program gets underway on Saturday, March 21 with NASCAR Opening Night Presented by the Southern California Toyota Dealers. The event is part of the 32 event NASCAR Whelen All-American series featuring 13 racing divisions.

Among the schedule highlights is a special July 4th NASCAR Camping World Series West Series 200-lap race followed by a spectacular fireworks show.

The SRL Southwest Tour, a racing series comprised of former NASCAR Elite Division Touring cars is scheduled to conduct a 100-lap race on July 18.

The Speedway will host the West Coast Outlaw Figure 8 Championships on October 31. In all, eight Outlaw Figure 8 races are scheduled at the Speedway during the 2009 season.

A total of 15 Demolition competitions are scheduled during the 2009 season including two Auto Soccer matches, two Train races, five Trailer races and six Demolition Derbies including the All Women Derby scheduled for October 3 as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Night in which ladies will be admitted for free. The Speedway’s annual ‘Night of Destruction’ is scheduled for October 10 featuring Auto Soccer, Train and Trailer races. 

Competitors who compete in the popular sport of Drifting identify TOYOTA Speedway as the ‘House of Drift’. The facility will live up to that moniker when it hosts the regular season finale for Formula Drift on October 17.

USAC’s Sprint and Midget cars and the Ford Focus Midget series will provide an entertaining night of racing during the 69th Running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix on Thanksgiving, November 26. The event is expected to attract a number of motor racing’s stars including those from USAC and NASCAR.  

The entire 2009 schedule including a partial calendar of promotion nights can be obtained by logging on to the TOYOTA Speedway web site at www.toyotaspeedwayatirwindale.com.

Tickets for the January 23-24 NASCAR TOYOTA All-Star Showdown are on sale and can be purchased by calling 626-358-1100 or by logging on to www.toyotaspeedwayatirwindale.com. Ticket for the Saturday evening NASCAR Whelen All-American events will go on sale beginning in February. Fans may begin placing reservations for reserved seat season tickets by calling (626) 358-1100 or visiting the Speedway office at 500 Speedway Drive, Irwindale, Calif., Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale is located at 500 Speedway Drive off of Live Oak Ave. and I-605, between the 10 and 210 freeways in Irwindale, Calif.