NASCAR heads onto eye-popping Naval Base Coronado in its latest Cup Series race

NATE RYAN Sat, June 20, 2026 at 7:47 PM UTC

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Ross Chastain, left, talks with Ryan Blaney, right, before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/Camden Hall) (AP Photo/Camden Hall)

Ryan Blaney wants to keep his eyes on the road as NASCAR returns to Southern California with a race through the bone-jarring streets of San Diego's Coronado Island.

Yet the Team Penske driver is worried about being distracted Sunday as his No. 12 Ford barrels toward the third turn with the USS Carl Vinson directly in its path.

"I hope I'm paying more attention to the corner and not the carrier when I brake into that corner," Blaney said with a laugh. "We'll see. It'd be a heck of a way to go."

There will be a dive team on hand in the highly unlikely scenario that a car lands in the water, but the 16-turn, 3.4-mile layout at Naval Base Coronado will already make a splash in many other ways.

It's the second street course in the 77-year history of the Cup Series and the first that NASCAR will hold on a military installation. Amazon Prime Video will broadcast the race from the USS Vinson, putting its studio set on the deck and its announcing booth in the bridge of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

The picturesque views of battleships and the San Diego Bay will be juxtaposed with a track that's the roughest yet on the Next Gen car, which made its debut in 2022.

"This is quite possibly the hardest thing we've done in a race car," Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Chris Buescher said after practice Friday. "It was very difficult to find your marks, and then you just really don't have much room for error."

Points leader Tyler Reddick balanced taking in the scenery while taming a course with massive railroad-style ties that were launching cars off the asphalt.

"Hold your breath," he said. "That Turn 3 braking zone is difficult. Hopefully, nobody gets distracted by the aircraft carrier, but it's quite the sight in front of you."

NASCAR wants to make an impression with its first points race in Southern California since California Speedway was shuttered three years ago. NASCAR chief operating officer Ben Kennedy said racing in a market of more than 20 million is "paramount," and he's been aggressive with building schedules to reach new fans. Last year, a street race in downtown Chicago completed a three-year run, and a road course in Mexico City made its debut.

"When I started racing in the Cup Series, NASCAR was very schedule risk-averse," said 2012 champion Brad Keselowski, who's in his 17th season. "Maybe a date changed year to year, but basically they were all the same racks. And now it feels like the culture has just flipped 180, and we're just major schedule innovations. I welcome that."

The 2027 schedule is being formulated and might not include Chicago, Mexico City or San Diego, but Keselowski (who sits in on planning meetings as a team owner) hinted it'll have more surprises. He would like to see NASCAR embrace more ovals (such as the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway short track in Tennessee).

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Coronado has still been a breath of fresh, salty ocean air. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said he was excited to tackle a unique track that Cup drivers are commuting to with scooters.

"The muck of the Cup series is just kind of grinding," he said. "I think we're conditioned well for a new challenge."

Debut for Magnussen

A week after racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for BMW's top sports car team, Formula One veteran Kevin Magnussen will make his NASCAR debut in Trackhouse Racing's Project 91 Chevrolet. Magnussen joins four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen as drivers of the No. 91 Chevrolet, which aims to bring stars from other series to NASCAR.

Magnussen's father, Jan, finished 12th at Sonoma Raceway in 2010.

"I always loved NASCAR," Kevin Magnussen said. "My dad loved it so much and had such a great experience. It's a big privilege. Not many European drivers get that opportunity, so I'm very thankful and privileged to be here. A Formula 1 car is more like a fighter jet with wheels than it is a car. These are real cars."

Sticking around

Buescher signed a multiyear contract extension to stay at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, where he made his NASCAR debut in 2011. Buescher, who is ranked seventh in the points standings, has five Cup wins for the team since taking over the No. 17 Ford in 2020, and Keselowski said "it was not a layup for us to re-sign him" because of interest from rivals.

"From a performance standpoint, we're in a good spot, but we have to be able to better it yet," Buescher said about why he returned. "Some of it is feeling like you have a home, and the other part of it is truly feeling like the competition level is at the cusp of truly being great."

Odds and ends

Shane van Gisbergen is the overwhelming favorite over Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch and points leader Tyler Reddick.

"I feel like it disrespects my competition," van Gisbergen said. "I know there's probably 10 guys that can win on pure pace. In NASCAR, so much stuff can happen, so I don't think it's going to be easy."

At 3.4 miles, the 16-turn layout is the fifth-longest track in Cup Series history. The Daytona Beach, Florida, road course used from 1949-58 holds the record at 4.17 miles. … Christopher Bell, who still is recovering from a broken wrist in a Michigan International Speedway crash, will have Brent Crews on standby as a relief driver. … Addressing concerns from teams about wear, NASCAR added a set of tires for the Cup race.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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