NASCAR has added one more road course event to its schedule for the 2026 Cup Series by bringing San Diego into the fold. The Naval Base Coronado has been announced as the official venue for the race and it sounds like the fans are in for a crazy adventure. But making this happen won’t be without a set of difficult challenges. Ben Kennedy spoke about them to Steve Letarte recently.
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Kennedy is NASCAR’s Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer. He explained that iRacing has been a crucial part of designing the race track, which will wind through the base’s streets and also include the tarmac.
iRacing’s support means drivers will be able to try out the track virtually and provide feedback. This is bound to result in the creation of a perfect surface to race around on. However, Kennedy also spoke of the challenges.
“You’ll see once we start to put the track together, there are roads that they will be racing on. So there’s not a ton of flexibility there. And then there are also wide open spaces like when they go out onto the tarmac where we’ll be able to kind of dream up a little bit of what we want,” he said.
iRacing has already built a track model and NASCAR has received great feedback on it from drivers. Kennedy believes that the tarmac section is a blank canvas on which they can draw up whatever they want. He said that a few more drivers will want to jump on it after the official announcements are made and then the track design will be finalized after getting their feedback as well.
Why was a naval base chosen as the venue?
Racing against a backdrop of fighter jets doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world. But how did NASCAR arrive at this destination? Kennedy revealed that a downtown course in the city was considered before the base came into discussion.
A member of NASCAR’s team had pitched the idea to him three or four years back and it had stuck with him. Following talks with a handful of military bases, the Naval Base Coronado was finalized as the best match for NASCAR.
Kennedy said, “A lot of our fans are either former, current or potential military members. It felt like just a natural opportunity for us to explore.” Apart from this, the idea of returning to Southern California must have been pretty alluring for the promotion.
