In the last few years, NASCAR has been working hard to grow the appeal of its racing product beyond its core regions and traditional race tracks. This means visiting new locales and running on new types of racing circuits not traditionally used for stock car racing. Yes, the state of North Carolina will always be the spiritual home of stock car racing, but among the less conventional races on the 2025 season schedule have been both a race on the blocked-off streets of Chicago and a visit to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez racing circuit in Mexico City.
Though NASCAR recently announced that Mexico City and the Chicago Street Course won’t be on the schedule in 2026, the series will break new ground by holding a race on the premises of Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, California. The event will be held on Father’s Day Weekend in 2026 and will be part of the celebration of the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary, as well as America’s own Semiquincentennial celebration.
One of many military installations in the San Diego area, Naval Base Coronado includes eight different facilities, with the race itself being held at Naval Air Station Coronado in the middle of picturesque San Diego Bay.
NASCAR returns to Southern California
For NASCAR, adding Coronado to the schedule achieves a few different goals. It helps draw new eyes to the sport, both on television and in person, as the Chicago street race did. It also introduces a highly unique race track to the season schedule, and provides the unique opportunity to partner with the US Navy to, for the first time ever, hold a race on an active military base.
Just as important, it returns NASCAR to the crucial Southern California market, filling a void that’s been left after the closing and subsequent demolition of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and the recent relocation of the season-opening NASCAR Clash exhibition race from the Los Angeles Coliseum to Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina.
Though the actual course layout for Coronado has yet to be finalized, it’s likely to be around three miles in length and use both streets and the tarmac of the air base. Coronado will be a full-points race and will include races for all three of NASCAR’s national series, Cup, Xfinity, and the Craftsman Truck series. San Diego is homeport for a few different Navy aircraft carriers, and NASCAR hopes to have both carriers and parked military aircraft as the backdrop behind the speeding race cars.
Not your typical street race
Mike Garrett/SlashGear
While this will mark the NASCAR Cup Series’ first-ever race in San Diego, it won’t be the first time there’s been auto racing at Naval Air Station Coronado. For nearly 20 years, the base hosted the Coronado Speed Festival as part of San Diego’s Fleet Week, which included vintage racing on the tarmac. That event was last held in 2016.
If you go further back, the San Diego region also hosted IMSA races on a street racing circuit at Del Mar for several seasons during the late ’80s and early ’90s. With both its high concentration of active military members and large civilian population, there is no shortage of race fans in the San Diego area.
As of this writing, it’s unknown whether Coronado will become a regular stop for NASCAR or if this will be a one-off event for 2026. Either way, the idea of top-level racing on an active military base with a beautiful waterfront backdrop and NASCAR’s much-demanded return to Southern California has generated a lot of excitement for the event. Will Coronado become the spot for another great moment in NASCAR history? That’s hard to say, but the pre-race flybys are sure to be excellent.