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LAST UPDATED AUGUST 20
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Ensenada, Baja Norte
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*NASCAR GOES TO SAN DIEGO!*
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. --
""NASCAR will hold a street race on Naval Base Coronado in Southern California next June as a replacement for its downtown Chicago event that ran the past three years.
The shift next year will allow NASCAR to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy by hosting all three of its national series over a three-day weekend from June 19 to June 21.
"As part of our nation's 250th anniversary, we are honored for NASCAR to join the celebration as we host our first street race at a military base, Naval Base Coronado," Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer, said in a statement Wednesday.
"NASCAR San Diego Weekend will honor the Navy's history and the men and women who serve as we take the best motorsports in the world to the streets of Naval Base Coronado."
It will be NASCAR's second street race in the sport's history, following the three-year run in Chicago, and first on an active military base. The course layout is not complete but is expected to be around 3 miles.
The move to the San Diego area does not eliminate a return to Chicago, where NASCAR will still maintain an office and attempt an eventual return, perhaps as early as 2027.
NASCAR has seen Auto Club Speedway close after the 2023 race. It built a temporary short track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 through 2024 but moved that event to North Carolina.
NASCAR Race the base: NASCAR bringing a different kind of speed to Naval Base Coronado
Ben Kennedy, who has been bullish on new endeavors for his family business, was the brains of the races at the Coliseum, Chicago, this year's visit to Mexico City and now next year in San Diego, a venture the Navy is excited about.
"NASCAR embodies the very best of the American spirit through speed, precision and an unyielding pursuit of excellence," Navy Secretary John C. Phelan said. "Hosting a race aboard Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of naval aviation, it's not just a historic first, it's a powerful tribute to the values we share: grit, teamwork and love of country.
"From the flight deck to the finish line, this collaboration reflects the operational intensity and unity of purpose that define both the United States Navy and NASCAR."
The base is known as the "West Coast Quarterdeck" and is a consortium of nine Navy installations that stretch from San Clemente Island 50 miles off the coast of Long Beach to the Mountain Warfare Training Center 50 miles east of San Diego.
NASCAR named Amy Lupo, who has been with the series since 2021 and helped launch the Coliseum event, as president of the race. She spent more than 20 years at ESPN expanding the X Games when she lived in San Diego early in her career. She still lives in Southern California.""
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The city of Coronado will soon enjoy a new attraction as NASCAR is confirmed moving to the West Coast.
A recent development indicates that the city of Coronado will soon host a NASCAR race. There are multiple reports, with the official announcement due any-minute.
An official announcement is expected Wednesday, July 23.
Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado appears to be the venue, as the event is scheduled to take place next June. Celebrating the Fourth of July.
It will be a road course containing several twists and turns. Being that it is on the Naval Base, there is plenty of open space to customize the track as needed.
With views of San Diego Bay, Point Loma, the Coronado Bay Bridge, and the downtown San Diego skyline, this may be one of the best venues for a NASCAR race in the sport’s history.
NASCAR is growing tremendously, and coming to a larger, West Coast comunity helps bring in new fans to the sport. Though there is a rich history of racing in the region, San Diego has never hosted a NASCAR event.
The last time NASCAR was so close to San Diego was in the 80s when they raced annually at Riverside International Speedway. The final NASCAR Cup Series race at Riverside International Raceway was the Budweiser 400, held on June 12, 1988, and was won by Rusty Wallace. The road track closed shortly thereafter.
Like most of southern California, it is now a strip mall and a housing complex. From 1997 to 2023, the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, hosted NASCAR races.
However, that event is now on pause, and rumors suggest that the track will be converted into a short-track venue, effectively ending its use for NASCAR. The window is open for San Diego to host this annual race. The revenue from this event will be huge for the city. Stay tuned here on BajaRacingNews.com as an announcement is expected soon with details of the event.
UPDATED: July 22 5 AM
The 'new' street race in San Diego comes after Shane van Gisbergen secured his Cup Series playoff spot with a win on the streets of the heart of the Aztec Empire, Mexico City.
The news comes after NASCAR legend and joint-record title holder Richard Petty told chiefs that road and street courses don't belong in the stock car racing series.
NASCAR revealed plans last year to bring both the Xfinity and Cup Series to the road course at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2025.
Thanks to NASCAR's "win and you're in" playoff format, Van Gisbergen's triumph in Mexico City, which Denny Hamlin missed, has guaranteed the Trackhouse Racing driver a place in the postseason, despite being ranked 30th in the Cup standings, far from the top 16.
In the NASCAR racing events, starting from pole position and finishing an unprecedented 16+ seconds ahead of second-place Christopher Bell and third-place Chase Elliott, who commended SVG for his exceptional road course prowess.
He said: "From the standpoint that you got somebody, like I say, that's 30th in the points that's going to make the playoffs, hey man, what happened to the guy that's 15th or 16th or 18th? You know, been running good, finished good everywhere.
"You're making a championship situation by winning a road course, which is not really a NASCAR to begin with. So from that standpoint, I think they're going to have to jockey around and change some of this kind of stuff."
NASCAR Set to Announce 2026 San Diego Street Race
NASCAR will announce this week, its contractual accomplishment with San Diego regional authorities.
In finishing scoping for a deal in a 'street course' at San Diego, California, NASCAR is using its 'nitro-technologies' in expanding motorsport horizons, globally.
"The topside of San Diego NASCAR horizons are limitless", said Michael Anthony of the San Diego Speed Festival, at the San Diego County Administration Center yesterday. The press conference clearly outlined the massive lifestyle buy-in for global motorsports, regionally.
"This is the birthplace and nesting center of gravity for motorsport lifestyle", Anthony continued. "San Diego-Southern California USA began the 'fire-brimstone' of American motorsports traditions, long before Daytona and shine runnin'".
Even before Southern California birthed the "Desert Classic", in 1914, "The World's Greatest Driver" Barney Oldfield, in his 'Number Five' 'stockcar' Stutz Bearcat, placed fifth in that years Indy 500 and in the very same stockcar, started at midnight and won the October Desert Classic, an open-road competition from Downtown 'BoomTown' Los Angeles to Phoenix in the eternal five-hundred miler to the heart of the Arizona State Fair, when AZ wasn't even a state! It was territorial Arizona.
"We Live, Eat and Breathe Stockcar Racing in SoCal". "How else do you expect us to get to work ontime, everyday!", Anthony finished the San Diego Speed Festival presser.
Despite the doubts raised by "The KING" Richard Petty, NASCAR is steering toward an exhilarating new venture in SoCal to take the races to a street course in San Diego, California.
The deal with San Diego is complete and will be announced, anyday.
This move aims to fulfill NASCAR's aspiration of making a splashy return to the heart of Southern California.
This would mark NASCAR's first points race in the area since the indefinite closure of California Speedway in Fontana in 2023. It's been a while since NASCAR's last roar in Southern California, with the previous event being an exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last year.
An official update on the San Diego plans are revving up, since NASCAR hit the brakes on their decision about a 2026 race in Mexico City. San Diego is getting the choice calendar slot, held by the Mexico City event, Fathers Day weekend.
When NASCAR took the competition south of the border, the local fans greeted it with cheers and fanfare, crowding drivers for snapshots and signatures, cranking up the hype even among the racing crew.
NASCAR has its eyes on the prize of a 2026 Latin-Region points race, crossing the finish line in So-Cal!
NASCAR senior executive Ben Kennedy said: "I would say for us, this is more of a strategic move as a sport to expand our footprint globally and internationally and to a new mass fan base. Just being in a region with 90 million people and over 20 million people in the larger California metro alone, not in and of itself, this is a success."
Kennedy added: "We're very hopeful to be in So-Cal for three years to start, perhaps forever."
NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps also emphasized the significance of the event for the drivers. "We've had several game-changing firsts in recent years, but this one is different," he said. "Racing here in Southern California, amongst these passionate fans in such an impressive venue for the first time in NASCAR Cup Series history, is in a word, spectacular. Together, we are doing something that will be remembered in the history of our great sport."
EXCLUSIVE REPORTING
ORIGINAL JULY 20, UPDATED AUGUST 20
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