NASCAR to race in San Diego in 2026: Here's what to know

NBC Sports

4 days ago

NASCAR will race on a military base next season when it holds a road course event at Naval Base Coronado, located across the bay from San Diego.
NASCAR will put on 'what is going to be, undoubtedly the most anticipated event of 2026 — and I'm bullish on it being the best sporting event of the year,' said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer.
The Cup Series will be joined by the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series on Father's Day weekend next June.
Here are the details for the event:
When are the races?
The Craftsman Truck Series will race Friday, June 19 on Fox Sports
The Xfinity Series will race Saturday, June 20 on The CW Network
The Cup Series will race Sunday, June 21 on Amazon Prime.
Where are the races held?
Naval Base Cornando
What is Naval Base Cornando?
The base that is home to 17 squadrons, three aircraft carriers, four SEAL Teams, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command squadrons, and other air, surface and subsurface commands.
Among the notable commands at Naval Base Coronado are Commander Naval Air Forces, Naval Surface Force Pacific, Commander Naval Special Warfare, and the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest.
What is the race course?
That will be announced sometime in the fall. Kennedy said the course would be 'in the ballpark of three miles.'
The longest road course on the Cup circuit this season is Mexico City's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez at 2.42 miles. Circuit of the Americas was 3.41 miles last year but shortened to 2.4 miles this year. The NASCAR Cup Series raced at Road America — which is 4.408 miles — in 2021 and 2022.
The course will wind through streets on the naval base and also include the tarmac, Kennedy said.
The course is being designed with the help of iRacing. That allows drivers to try the track virtually and provide feedback.
'It'll be a blend of traditional kind of street racing … where we'll be wind through some of the streets on the base, we'll be going past (aircraft) carriers and eventually go out onto the tarmac, probably by some military aircraft, maybe a couple of F-18s out here and then back toward the entrance of the base,' Kennedy said.
Why the naval base?
Kennedy said that NASCAR considered a downtown course in San Diego and looked at other areas in Southern California.
Kennedy said the idea to race on a military base first occurred with a member of the NASCAR team about three or four years ago. Kennedy said that NASCAR talked to 'a handful of military bases' about the concept but that Naval Base Coronado 'was a really good fit for us.'
Kennedy noted that a military base is a good backdrop for a NASCAR event because 'a lot of our fans are either former, current or potential military members. It felt like just a natural opportunity for us to explore.'
The event returns NASCAR to Southern California. NASCAR raced at California Speedway in Fontana — about 50 miles east of Los Angeles — from 1997-2020, skipping 2021 and returning in 2022 and 2023. That track was closed after 2023 and part of its land sold. A plan was to convert the 2-mile track to a short track but that has not been done.
NASCAR held the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022-24 but has not had a presence in Southern California since.
How long is this deal?
Kennedy said that 'as of now' it is a one-year partnership.
That would allow NASCAR to return to the streets of Chicago in 2027 if it wanted only one street race a year. NASCAR recently announced it was putting a 'pause' on the Chicago Street Race for 2026 but was interested in returning in 2027.
Or this event could lead to something else.
'We'd love to kick it off and be at Naval Base Coronado for a number of years,' Kennedy said, 'but this could also be an opportunity for us to move it to other military installations across the country, too.
How many fans will be able to attend?
Kennedy said that is still being determined and no announcement on that will be likely until the fall.
Kennedy did say that 'we would expect tens of thousands of people. The great part about it is the base has penalty of space to use. … We'll have grandstands and suites and hospitality areas, but we'll also be selling more of a general admission ticket to which will probably have a lot of volume. So we would expect quite a few people to be attending this.'