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This weekend, NASCAR will make its long-awaited and much-anticipated debut at Naval Base Coronado. While the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Craftsman Truck Series will also see action on the street course, it will be the Cup action as part of the Anduril 250 Race the Base that will take centre stage.
NASCAR has pulled out all the stops to help promote the event, even “enlisting” (pardon the pun) of drivers like Ryan Blaney, Carson Hocevar, Noah Gragson, Christopher Bell, and Chase Briscoe to film a short movie where the NASCAR drivers had to prove their worth against the Navy’s best to win the right to “Race the Base.”
Right off the bat, I have to admit that I’m no road course aficionado and I’m not going to expect a five-star race classic this Sunday. After all, it will be the first time that the Cup series regulars will have taken to this particular track. If having the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is any indication, there may be some growing pains in the on-track action.
Having said that, the crowd at Bowman Gray was definitely and infinitely more engaged than the L.A. crowd at the Coliseum. Why? Because the crowd at Bowman Gray are race fans. There was no need to bring in musical acts from the 1990s (that most hardcore NASCAR fans weren’t into) the way they did when the Clash at the Coliseum. All they needed was a night of racing and they were satisfied, even if there were a few hiccups along the way.
Flashforward to June 2026 and NASCAR is headed to Naval Base Coronado for another first. (For NASCAR, that is, the base hosted the Coronado Speed Festival from 1997 to 2016.)
The results of the race will be an important question mark that NASCAR will need to look at the answer to. When I talk about “results,” I don’t mean who won the race. (It will most likely be Shane Van Gisbergen or Denny Hamlin.)
What I mean is: this experiment in holding a street course race on a naval base will be a success if the crowd comes away wanting to see more. For the long-time fans beyond the California border, that “more” will be more racing on that particular course, or street course racing in general. For the fans in California, and the West Coast in general, that “more” will be NASCAR and the product they offer.
Despite NASCAR being characterized (some, unfortunately, might say stigmatized) as a southern sport, it has a long history in California, dating back to the 1950s and racing at tracks like Riverside, Ontario, and Fontana, which have faded into NASCAR history.
While some (including this writer) will point to the disinterested fans that attended the Clash at the Coliseum, the “Race the Base” experiment at Naval Base Coronado is a race – and in a larger sense a direction – that the sport needs to move in. It needs to explore new territories, new markets and new initiatives.
Some will work. (Turning Atlanta into a drafting track, for one.)
Some won’t. (Remember the 2021 Truck race at the Bristol Dirt Track?)
Although perhaps not as much as some long-time fans would like, NASCAR remains rooted in its tradition. While the full-field throwback paint schemes at the Southern 500 may have fallen by the wayside, many teams still adapt throwbacks during the spring’s Goodyear 400. NASCAR is a sport that has long embraced and remembered its past.
Ironically, NASCAR has moved forward by returning to its past and its roots. While the jury might be out on the on-track action at Bowman Gray Stadium, the enthusiasm of the fans made the short track racing a lot of fun to watch. Then, years after it had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair, North Wilkesboro was brought back to NASCAR, first as the site of the All-Star race and now a points-paying race, for the first time since 1996.
No matter what the eventual outcome, NASCAR needs to take a long, hard look at whether or not these races, whether at a North Carolina short track or a naval base in California, is going to connect with fans and help grow the sport. While there is a risk of being seen as “forcing something down fans’ throats,” there is also a risk of giving up on something too early, that might have eventually become a big hit. Don’t be one and done at Coronado. See what works and can be sustained. See what didn’t work but might with a tweak or two.
No matter if you like the racing this weekend or are bored, give NASCAR some props for trying something new. I’m going to suggest that back in the glory days of the 80s and 90s, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon – to say nothing of Richard Petty and David Pearson – probably never dreamed of NASCAR racing around a naval base, but here we are.
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