{"id":20825,"date":"2025-07-24T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20825\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:32:16","slug":"aj-allmendinger-shares-opinion-about-new-nascar-san-diego-street-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20825\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ Allmendinger shares opinion about new NASCAR San Diego street race"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA BEACH \u2014 AJ Allmendinger admires this about NASCAR<\/a> over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all for trying new things,\u201d the driver<\/a> of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet said. \u201cDirt race at Bristol, whether you liked or hated it, it was new. Street racing, going to different places. I think it’s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This week, NASCAR<\/a> formally announced its newest novelty.<\/p>\n

Next season, it will run a street race at Naval Base Coronado<\/a> in San Diego. The weekend, which is scheduled for June 19-21, will include Cup, Xfinity and Truck events.<\/p>\n

It serves as the spiritual successor to the Chicago Street Race<\/a> of the last three seasons, becoming just the second street course in the modern era. It also will be the first time NASCAR has put on a show from an active military base.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a win for everybody,\u201d Allmendinger told The News-Journal during a fundraising visit to Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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San Diego street race will put NASCAR back in SoCal<\/p>\n

The event will insert NASCAR back into the Southern California market, something it lost with the shuttering of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in 2023.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum filled the gap for one year in 2024. But that was the last of its three years hosting the preseason Clash. The exhibition relocated to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Southern California market we miss, for sure,\u201d Allmendinger said. \u201cWe still had it a little bit with the Coliseum, but now that is gone. And San Diego itself is just such a pretty area. So it’ll be fun to see how they set up the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Allmendinger added that\u2019s the biggest potential con to street racing \u2014 the track layout.<\/p>\n

He harbored initial doubts about Chicago.<\/p>\n

When that race arrived in 2023, he looked at the course and thought it would eliminate passing opportunities. It was too narrow.<\/p>\n

He quickly realized that wasn\u2019t the case, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had some of the best passing opportunities, and it showed that over the three years of racing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

AJ Allmendinger thought NASCAR\u2019s Chicago Street Race was successful\"Jul<\/p>\n

Jul 5, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger (16) during qualifying for the Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Race. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Allmendinger liked the Chicago experience.<\/p>\n

He participated in all three iterations and posted his best finish<\/a> (sixth) earlier this month.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI thought Chicago, for the most part, was very successful over the three years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was nice, for the most part, to have good weather this year because I felt like, the first two years, that’s what hurt the Cup race. But this year, it seemed more crowded than it had been. It just kept growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s what’s great about street racing in general. You kind of bring a new public to it. Back when I raced Champ Car, that’s what we always said \u2014 30% of the fans knew what was going on and 70% of them usually drove down those streets at 30 miles per hour and they kind of rolled out there like, \u2018What’s going on now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite putting the event on pause, NASCAR might return to Chicago in the future. The door remains open for 2027.<\/p>\n

Allmendinger wouldn\u2019t mind that.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’d have been fun to keep it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was doing a really good job. But I also think sometimes, with street races, you’ve got to go try new markets and it kind of runs its course. But I’m not opposed to going back there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the NASCAR schedule have too many road courses?\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger prepares to drive around the track at Daytona International Speedway in support of the NASCAR Foundation’s License to Drive Track Laps event, Wednesday, July 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

Because 2026 won\u2019t feature a Chicago Street Race, with San Diego essentially replacing it, the number of road courses on the schedule could stay at six. The full slate is expected to be released in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Road courses have been a point of contention recently.<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski criticized the amount of them on social media. Denny Hamlin stated his desire for fewer on his Actions Detrimental podcast. Both drivers publicized their feelings in mid-July, right as Shane van Gisbergen was ripping off his third road-course victory<\/a> in five weeks and rumors about a San Diego addition<\/a> swirled.<\/p>\n

Then, Michael McDowell defended NASCAR and opposed Keselowski\u2019s comments during an appearance on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.<\/p>\n

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Where does Allmendinger fall?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think six is about as max as we need,\u201d he said. \u201cAnywhere from four-to-six, I’m good with.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can say we have six superspeedway races, right? I don’t want any more of those, either. You don’t want too much of one thing, so I think that’s a good number. We don’t need more of it. But I would hate to go back to just two or three of them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially with the San Diego news, a massive decrease doesn\u2019t look likely anytime soon.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger supports San Diego street race<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTONA BEACH \u2014 AJ Allmendinger admires this about NASCAR over the last few years. \u201cI\u2019m all for trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[17578,49,48,17579,634,14556,17580,82,17577],"class_list":["post-20825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-allmendinger","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-street-race","tag-nascar","tag-san-diego","tag-southern-california-market","tag-sports","tag-street-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}