Fans railroaded by NASCAR

I was one of about 2,000 people who took Metrolink trains to California Speedway for Sunday’s NASCAR race.

This is normally a great way to get in and out of the track on race day. On Sunday night it turned into a nightmare.

The trains were supposed to leave one hour after the race. However, when NASCAR decided by some miracle that the track could be dried out by 11 p.m., all of us who rode the trains became hostages of NASCAR.

Because of the contract, the trains could not leave until NASCAR called off the race or the race finished.

The result was we sat for over 3 1/2 hours waiting for NASCAR to finally realize the track was never going to dry out.

The train I was on had to go to Oxnard, so at some point it was decided we could leave at the conclusion of the race or at 10:15 p.m.

When we finally left the station at 10:30, the other two trains were still sitting there.

Maybe you could find out who the NASCAR official was who was responsible for the fiasco Sunday night. I would be very interested in sending that person a thank-you note.

Jack Lucas

Covina

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If NASCAR wants big crowds at Fontana, don’t schedule a race the week before the Las Vegas event (where the track operator says 80% of their crowd comes from Southern California), and don’t put a second race in the hottest part of summer.

Even Auto Club Speedway’s always excellent guest relations can’t overcome bad race dates.

Dan Rendant

Arcadia