NASCAR will return to Southern California in style in June 2026.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ second street race destination isn’t just the sport’s debut in the San Diego area, but also the site of the first race in NASCAR history to be held on a military installation.
It’s a move that would’ve seemed like something out of “The Twilight Zone” as recently as a decade ago. But three years of racing in downtown Chicago proved NASCAR could successfully have a race on a street course, and the exclusion of the Windy City on the 2026 schedule opened up the door for Naval Base Coronado to host the world’s premier stock-car racing series and take the mantle as the home of the lone street race on the schedule.
It’s another bold, new-age scheduling decision from NASCAR’s Ben Kennedy, the grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr.
“One of the ideas that we had several years ago was to race on a military base,” Kennedy said. “We’ve had a number of conversations with bases across the country. We also wanted to find a way to have a presence back here in the Southern California market.”
NASCAR has been out of the SoCal market for only a year, but it’s a noticeable absence. From 1997 to 2023, the NASCAR series made the trip to the California Speedway in Fontana, and from 2022 to 2024, the Clash was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
For an area of the country rich with car culture and racing history, NASCAR knew it needed to come back to Southern California. Coronado provided that opportunity.
“We started having conversations with Naval Base Coronado a couple years ago,” Kennedy said. “Frankly, pretty surprised we were able to keep a lot of it under wraps until recently. There’s much more work that’s going to happen over the next 11 months. We’re excited to get started with them, promoting this event, turn out what is going to be the biggest spectacle of all sports in 2026.”
NASCAR choosing to race in San Diego makes sense in a modern motorsports landscape focused on taking a racing product to major markets and potential new fans that otherwise wouldn’t seek it out. For instance, IndyCar is preparing to race in Arlington, Texas, in 2026 and seeks a date in Mexico City. Formula 1 is also looking to expand its footprint in the United States with races in Miami and Las Vegas.
But why a military installation? With the city streets of San Diego just across the San Diego Bay, why did NASCAR choose to hold the event at Coronado?
Enter the 250th birthday of the United States.
“We looked at a handful of military bases across the country,” Kennedy said. “We looked at different branches of the military as well. Naturally, it was a great fit for us being in San Diego, Coronado, the Southern California market. As I spoke about the location and backdrop of all of San Diego, being in this part of the country, the natural ties our fans and a lot of the folks in our industry have with the military and the men and women that fight for our freedom, give us the ability to do what we love to do every single day, it was a natural fit.”
Regardless of whether the race was held on Naval Base Coronado or downtown, it’s another opportunity for NASCAR to cater to new fans in a market otherwise devoid of big-league stock-car racing. For NASCAR Hall of Famer and El Cajon, Calif., native Jimmie Johnson, seeing a race in San Diego on the 2026 schedule is a surreal moment.
“I honestly didn’t think NASCAR would ever be able to race in San Diego,” said Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR champion and majority owner of LEGACY Motor Club. “Growing up in El Cajon, watching it develop and change so much, watching El Cajon Speedway sadly go away, it’s just a reality or thought of NASCAR in a traditional sense on an oval in San Diego, it just never seemed possible.”
How excited is Johnson about NASCAR having a race near his hometown? He may expand his driving schedule in 2026 and take it in behind the wheel.
“The desire to race in my hometown is off the charts,” Johnson said. “I will aggressively work on being in the event.”
On the surface, San Diego is a much-needed addition to the NASCAR schedule and a return to the Southern California market. If you dig deeper, it’s also the first in what could be a long line of experiments with regard to new, untapped markets that are being pursued by NASCAR.
Despite Mother Nature doing her best to spoil things with poor weather in Chicago, NASCAR did, at least, prove that it can put on a race in the middle of a major market and draw a crowd in the process. There are plenty of markets, both internationally and domestically, that NASCAR has yet to explore, and how fans react to NASCAR moving a street race to San Diego could determine how abruptly NASCAR chooses to explore those aforementioned unexplored markets.
NASCAR is keeping its options for street racing open in the future. When it was announced the Chicago Street Race wouldn’t return in 2026, the accompanying statement made it clear that the City of Chicago is interested in welcoming NASCAR back in 2027.
Kennedy did not comment regarding any long-term future for a race in San Diego, but at the very least, NASCAR can circle the San Diego race weekend in 2026 as the biggest marquee race on the schedule, save for the season-opening Daytona 500.
Per Kennedy, the 2026 NASCAR schedule is set to be released “within a couple weeks.” The San Diego race will be by far the most impactful addition to a slate that only gets bolder with each passing season.
–Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
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