Unbearable heat at Fontana

It's 124 degrees outside at 12:30 pm. We were only outside for about an hour and feel terrible.

Drawing a crowd to California Speedway for the Labor Day weekend race hasn’t been easy, and the 100-plus degree heat this weekend probably won't make it any more enticing for fans.

And there continue to be major questions about why this track has a Labor Day weekend NASCAR race, when the Los Angeles crowd has so many other end-of-summer options, particularly the beaches and the mountains.

It was stunning here Friday night, driving along just behind the frontstretch grandstands, along the mammoth souvenir row, with its bandstands, TV stages and various simulators — because it was a ghost town. Completely empty. NASCAR just does not get it. Sophisticated Californians have no interest in NASCAR's product. Nor do New Yorkers, Denverites, Seattleites, Bostonians, etc.