SAN DIEGO \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s Craftsman Truck Series will break new ground this Friday, staging a national series event on an active U.S. military base for the first time in the sport\u2019s history. Kaulig Racing heads into the inaugural 3.4-mile, 16-turn street circuit at Naval Base Coronado with a formidable four-truck lineup, a deeply personal military connection, and the historic return of Ram to the pace car field.<\/p>\n
The weekend, designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Navy, will be led to the green flag by the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee SRT. The moment marks the first time in two decades that a Ram has served as the official pace vehicle for a NASCAR race.<\/p>\n
For Kaulig Racing, the event carries significant emotional weight. Tim Sanders, a 27-year NASCAR veteran and Kaulig team member who served in the Marine Corps as an HMX-1 helicopter mechanic, will watch the team compete on the very base where his daughter is stationed. AWS2 Andi Snyder currently serves at Naval Base Coronado as a rescue swimmer and aircrew member on H-60 Seahawk helicopters with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 3 (HSC-3).<\/p>\n
On the track, Kaulig Racing will field a mix of seasoned veterans and rising rookies.<\/p>\n
Jamie McMurray will pilot the No. 25 Ram 1500 as part of the team\u2019s Free Agent Driver Program. The 2010 Daytona 500 champion and current Fox Sports analyst will carry a special USO paint scheme to honor the military personnel in attendance. McMurray brings a winning pedigree to the manufacturer, having scored his first Cup Series victory\u2014as well as five O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series wins and his lone Truck Series win\u2014in a Dodge.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacing on a naval base in San Diego for the very first time is going to be an incredible experience,\u201d McMurray said. \u201cStreet courses reward precision and adaptability, and I\u2019m looking forward to teaming with Kaulig Racing and Ram to make some history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corey LaJoie, driving the No. 10 Mopar Ram 1500, will make his first Truck Series street course start. LaJoie has been a model of consistency recently, securing an eighth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway and running up front at Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the trucks to see the street course first out of everybody will be a fun challenge,\u201d LaJoie noted. \u201cI have a lot of confidence at road courses and especially new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kaulig roster is rounded out by two Rookie of the Year contenders: 2025 ARCA Menards Series champion Brenden \u201cButterbean\u201d Queen and reality show standout Timothy \u201cMini\u201d Tyrrell.<\/p>\n
Queen, driving the No. 12 Cummins Ram, secured his third top-10 finish of the season at Watkins Glen and looks to apply lessons learned from an off-weekend Late Model start at Dominion Raceway.<\/p>\n
\u201cRealistically, I know that road courses aren\u2019t my strong suit,\u201d Queen said. \u201cTracks like North Wilkesboro and Richmond are more my bread and butter, but I\u2019m still going to put the prep in and work hard for San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyrrell, who earned his seat in the No. 14 Ram through the \u201cRace for the Seat\u201d television series, arrives in San Diego with strong momentum. He recently posted a career-best eighth-place finish at Watkins Glen and captured a CARS Tour Late Model victory while raising funds and awareness for his \u201cMini\u2019s Mission\u201d childhood cancer charity.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s historic race will be broadcast live on FS1 and the Motor Racing Network at 7 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s Craftsman Truck Series will break new ground this Friday, staging a national series event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-741838","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\/741838","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=741838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}