Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
CORONADO, Calif. — NASCAR has landed on a unique way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Navy.
It will race on a naval base.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers will compete June 21, 2026 on a still-to-be-finalized course on Naval Base Coronado, capping a weekend that will include a Craftsman Truck Series race June 19 and an Xfinity Series race June 20.
“This is another historic moment for our sport,” NASCAR Executive Vice President Ben Kennedy said.
The event outside of San Diego will be the first NASCAR points race in Southern California since 2023 and replaces the Chicago Street Race on the 2026 schedule, albeit not on the July 4 weekend.
The idea of racing on a military base has been floated the last few years in NASCAR schedule discussions and was an idea that Kennedy said “felt like just such a natural opportunity for us to explore.”
“We’ve talked to a handful of military bases,” Kennedy said. “This one was a really good fit for us. … .We felt like it was a good opportunity for us to get back to Southern California market and re-engage our fans.”
The course will be roughly three miles and will utilize the tarmac and the apron areas of the runways but likely not the runways themselves, said Kennedy, who oversees NASCAR’s scheduling and new events. The course will be designed to also limit disruptions of base operations.
Kennedy said NASCAR expects “tens of thousands” of fans to be able to attend the event. NASCAR will have a general admission ticket that would allow people to roam to various temporary grandstands as well as to visit military displays. There also will be temporary suites erected for the event.
NASCAR is partnering with Sports San Diego for promotion of the event, which for now is a one-year deal.
“We’d love to kick it off and be at Naval Base Coronado for a number of years, but this could also be an opportunity for us to move it to other military installations across the country, too,” Kennedy said.
The announcement of the San Diego race adds another element into the still-evolving 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
The race will be the 17th event of the Cup schedule (the last race televised by Prime), meaning that NASCAR has 20 weekends available for the final 19 races (the season finale already has been announced as Nov. 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway).
Where that off-weekend will come and the rest of the schedule — other than the preseason Clash Feb. 1 at Bowman Gray Stadium and season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 — is still to be finalized.
NASCAR will not race on the streets of Chicago in 2026, but could return in the future.
Could that off-weekend be the July 4 weekend? NASCAR has traditionally raced on that weekend, including at Daytona for decades until 2020 when NASCAR moved the Daytona race to the regular-season finale in August.
“More than likely, we’ll have an event on that weekend, not sure exactly where it’s going to land yet, but it is an important part of our schedule,” Kennedy said about a race around the July 4 holiday.
Whether there could be additional new venues on the 2026 schedule is also still to be determined. Since NASCAR won’t race the streets of Chicago, there is some movement to race at the Chicagoland Speedway in somewhat nearby Joliet.
NASCAR announced last week that it would engage in talks with Chicago politicians to return the street race in 2027 on a date other than around July 4.
“It’s a tremendous market for us to be in,” Kennedy said about Chicago. “We’re bullish about getting it back on the schedule in 2027 and beyond.”
If NASCAR does add Chicagoland back until it returns to the Chicago streets, where that race would come from is still to be determined. NASCAR is still in negotiations to return to Mexico City next year, with a preference for a spring date around the likely Easter off-weekend and well before the World Cup.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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