NASCAR on Tuesday announced a fast and demanding 3.4-mile, 16-turn street/road course on Naval Base Coronado for next June’s tripleheader celebrating both the 250th anniversary of the nation and U.S. Navy.
The course will be the longest on NASCAR’s 2026 schedule and the longest in the Cup Series since the premier tour ran on the 4.066-mile Road America road course in Wisconsin in 2021 and 2022. The longest circuit in NASCAR history was the fabled 4.2-mile Daytona Beach Road Course that predated the opening of Daytona International Speedway.
Nine of the turns at Coronado are in the neighborhood of 90 degrees, with two, tight 90-degree left-handers within a quarter-mile of the start-finish line. The featured turn on the course is turn five, a left-handed turn between the two docking sites for aircraft carriers along San Diego Bay.
The featured Cup race on June 21 will be named the Anduril 250 in honor of the 250th anniversaries and not the race distance, which is common for NASCAR race titles. The distance and lap counts for the June 19 Craftsman Truck Series race, the June 20 Xfinity Series race and the featured June 21 Cup race have not been determined.
NASCAR’s Anduril 250 Cup race will be held on Naval Base Coronado in June. (NASCAR)
A ticket presale begins Thursday, with remaining available general public tickets going on sale Nov. 7.
NASCAR announced Tuesday that tickets for the events of Friday, June 19 — including the Craftsman Truck race and Cup and Xfinity practice sessions — will be limited to personnel of Naval Base Coronado and select Coronado residents. The base will be open to the general public on June 20 and 21.
A closer look at the 3.4-mile, counter-clockwise circuit on Naval Base Coronado:
The Ellyson start-finish line is on the west side of the base along the Pacific Ocean. The start-finishing area is named in honor of Commander Theodore Ellyson, Naval Aviator No. 1, whose training at North Island in 1917 led to its eventual title as the “birthplace of Naval aviation.”
NASCAR coming to San Diego for the first time
From the starting line, the course goes through the right-handed dogleg turn one into a short straight leading to the 90-degree, left-handed turn two. Another short straight leads into the 90-degree left-handed turn two followed by the sweeping right-handed turn that opens into a straight heading toward the left-handed turn five Carrier Corner.
Coming out of the Carrier Corner is a long straight along San Diego Bay with downtown San Diego as the backdrop. Turn six is a sharp right-hander followed almost immediately by the sweeping left-handed turn seven that opens onto a straight along north San Diego Bay. Turn eight is a sweeping, 90-degree left-hander followed quickly by the sharper, right-handed turn nine that creates the Coronado Chicane toward the interior of the base and the tarmacs and runways used by the air wing.
The quick left-right turns 10/11 combination ends the Coronado Chicane complex and leads to a straight ending at the northwestern end of the air base. The sharp right-handed 12th turn leads to another high-speed straight ending in the sweeping left-handed 13th turn.
Then it’s another short straight leading to the sharp right/sweeping left Runway Road complex of turns 14 and 15 at the end of Runway 18/36 at Halsey Field. Turn 16 is a left-hander taking the field back to the start/finish line.
“Every driver is going to be excited about next Father’s Day Weekend,” driver Ross Chastain said during a recent visit to the base and sections of the course. “We’re going to be racing with aircraft carriers, fighter jets and helicopters in the background, plus San Diego on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.
“This is a new level of cool. I think this is going to be very emotional for all of us. It’s kind of surreal.”