Drivers will be racing on Naval Air Station North Island in June on a 3.4 mile street course creating an exciting event for drivers and fans. <\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO \u2014 Rady Children\u2019s Hospital got an extra dose of excitement on Wednesday as NASCAR drivers made a special visit to young patients, delivering stuffed bears, activity books, and plenty of smiles.<\/p>\n
Drivers, including Christopher Bell, spent time going room to room, sharing laughs and moments of encouragement with kids undergoing treatment. Bell said the experience left a mark on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really heartwarming, honestly. I\u2019ve got the coolest job in the world, being a race car driver, and when you walk in there in your fire suits, seeing the kids light up\u2026 we\u2019re essentially mascots,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n
Bell will be one of the competitors in this June\u2019s highly anticipated NASCAR event, where he\u2019ll race alongside El Cajon native Jimmie Johnson. The race will make history as the first ever held on Naval Air Station North Island, adding an extra layer of unpredictability to the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drivers don\u2019t even know what to expect. So expect the unexpected,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an absolutely wild event. A great race. It\u2019ll be a first-time-ran track, a little bit of a street course, so there\u2019s going to be a lot of action, a lot of crashes, and a lot of hurt feelings, which makes for great entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course will feature 16 turns across 3.4 miles, and the timing is intentional \u2014 the event happens just weeks before the nation celebrates its 250th birthday. Leaders on base say the race represents far more than competition or logistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would argue it\u2019s really about bringing people together,\u201d said Capt. Loren Jacobi, Commanding Officer of Naval Base Coronado. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge opportunity to bring together a diverse crowd and learn from each other, and to really celebrate what makes this place great.\u201d<\/p>\n
To add to the anticipation, a lottery was held on base to pair sailors with NASCAR drivers for meet\u2011and\u2011greets before the race. But as for which sailor picked the winning driver? Bell says that\u2019s impossible to predict.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know who the favorite is going to be,\u201d he said. \u201cLiterally all of the drivers, all of the teams, are learning on the fly, and honestly it makes it more exciting because you just genuinely don\u2019t know who is going to win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
The historic race is set to bring high-speed thrills, community spirit, and a patriotic kickoff to the summer \u2014 both on the track and beyond it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers will be racing on Naval Air Station North Island in June on a 3.4 mile street course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-530371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530371","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=530371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}