NASCAR will return to Southern California in 2026 with first-of-its-kind street races at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, the sanctioning body announced Wednesday.
The NASCAR San Diego Weekend marks a full-throttle, three-day event for the first NASCAR events ever contested on an active military base, with the Craftsman Truck Series headlining Friday, June 19, the Xfinity Series racing on June 20 and Cup stars shining for the feature event on June 21.
San Diego will host just the second street course in NASCAR‘s modern era. The Chicago Street Course hosted Cup and Xfinity action for each of the past three seasons. The race weekend will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States Navy.
“What a special way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Navy, 250th anniversary of our country and put on what is going to be undoubtedly the most anticipated event of 2026,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR‘s executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer. “And I’m bullish on it being the best sporting event of the year.”
Naval Base Coronado will become the first active military base to host NASCAR racing. The naval base encompasses eight military facilities stretching from San Clemente Island to the La Posta Mountain Warfare Training Facility.
“NASCAR embodies the very best of the American spirit through speed, precision and an unyielding pursuit of excellence,” Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan said in a press release. “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. We‘re proud to open our gates to the American people, honor those who serve, and inspire the next generation to step forward and serve something greater than themselves.”
Details of the official San Diego street course layout will be unveiled at a later time, but visions of the track are coming together, in part through driving on base and in part via iRacing. NASCAR previously leaned on the racing simulator for projects like the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Chicago Street Race.
“It‘ll be a blend of traditional street racing in a way where we’ll be winding our ways through some of the streets on the base,” Kennedy said. “They’ll be going past (aircraft) carriers. They’ll eventually go out onto the tarmac, probably by some military aircraft, maybe a couple of F-18s out there, and then back towards the entrance to the base.”
How that will come together, he said, is still in progress.
“Part of the course will be a bit set in stone because we can’t move many of the streets around, but part of it will also be a blank canvas as well,” Kennedy said. “Once we go out on the tarmac, whether it’s hairpins or chicanes or S-turns, long straightaways, we’re playing with a handful of configurations and we have a few drivers that we’ve gotten feedback from on what that could potentially look like. We’ll share more on the final course layout later this fall, but I would expect it to look unlike anything that they‘ve had in the past around the base.”
San Diego will mark the final race of Prime Video‘s five-race window of broadcast coverage for Cup racing in 2026, while the Xfinity Series race will air on The CW and Trucks on FOX Sports.
“As Commanding Officer of Naval Base Coronado and on behalf of the United States Navy, it‘s an honor to partner with NASCAR at NAS North Island as part of our 250th anniversary celebration,” Captain Loren Jacobi said in a press release. “Hosting one of America‘s premier motorsports events on this historic base reflects our partnership with the local community and our shared pride in the nation‘s heritage. We are privileged to showcase the dedication of our Sailors alongside NASCAR‘s finest as we celebrate our 250th anniversary.”
The San Diego street race marks NASCAR‘s return to Southern California for the first time since February 2024, when the Clash at the LA Coliseum kicked off the season from 2022 through 2024. From 1997 through 2023, NASCAR previously raced in Fontana, California, at California Speedway, formerly a 2-mile oval that sat approximately 120 miles north from Naval Base Coronado.
“We contemplated a number of places, not just in San Diego, but the greater Southern California region,” Kennedy said. “Naturally, I think we all started to gravitate towards the military base, seeing that we knew that the 250th anniversary was upcoming, our natural ties that we have to the military and then the location of it. I mean, you couldn’t ask for a better location than Coronado, sitting between downtown San Diego, the Pacific Ocean and not far from Tijuana, either.”
To coordinate the event, NASCAR is partnering with nonprofit Sports San Diego for operational and promotional support. Sports San Diego‘s focus is to drive visitor demand to economically benefit the San Diego region through producing, recruiting, supporting and hosting world-class sports events, previously including the Super Bowl, X Games, the MLB All-Star Game and more.
“This a huge win for San Diego and we are so grateful to NASCAR for their partnership,” Mark Neville, CEO, Sports San Diego, said in a release. “Without a doubt, the NASCAR San Diego Weekend will have a significant and favorable impact on San Diego‘s tourism and hospitality industry. On top of that, being the first ever NASCAR race on an active military base is going to be quite the spectacle and you can’t beat Naval Base Coronado.”
Among the lessons learned from three years of street racing in downtown Chicago was how to load into and out of a city efficiently while also connecting with the community hosting the event.
“I think there’s been a lot of really big learnings that we’ve had, mostly from an operations perspective,” Kennedy said. “I’d say from a marketing perspective (and) from a partnerships perspective, a lot of that is relatively similar to what we have at the other tracks. But it is the operations and the course build that we’ve learned a lot from. And while I would say that there will be a lot that we’ve learned in Chicago that will be able to apply in San Diego, there’s also a handful of differences as well naturally.
“We’re not going to be on city grounds. We‘re going to be working with different partners in this area and I think in ways, it will be a little bit more simple, and then in other areas we’ll just have to be mindful of schedules and how they coordinate people on and off the base.”
Amy Lupo was named president of NASCAR San Diego, bringing with her a resume that includes four years at NASCAR as she helped launch the Clash at the Coliseum. Lupo, a resident of Southern California, spent more than 20 years at ESPN and worked on the X Games, overseeing its international growth and serving as event director in Tignes, Munich and Sydney.
The addition of a street race on a military base continues the growing trend of NASCAR‘s willingness to push its boundaries. After adding an exhibition race inside the LA Coliseum for three years and creating a world-class street course on the streets of downtown Chicago, NASCAR continues to lay ground where it has never been previously.
“I think it emphasizes the fact that not only we can race literally anywhere in the world, but that we have some of the best and most versatile drivers in all of motorsports as well,” Kennedy said. “It’s the most diverse schedule that we have in our sport, and I would argue the most diverse schedule across all of motorsports when you consider the different amounts of track types that we race at.”
Tickets for the 2026 NASCAR San Diego Weekend will go on sale this fall. Fans can put down a deposit for advance pricing at NASCARSanDiego.com.
Follow @NASCARSanDiego on social media for additional details and elements of the weekend.
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