FANTASY NASCAR Racin

For America's 250th birthday, NASCAR raced at San Diego on the Coronado Naval Base. It also marked the 250th birthday of the US Navy. The announcement that all three of NASCAR's series would be racing there came in July of 2025, with the course lay-out being revealed in October. It would be the first active military base to host a NASCAR race. The race was just signed for a one year deal, so it was not known if NASCAR would return in 2027. It marked the first return of a NASCAR points race to Southern California since the last race was held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana CA,; a 2-mile oval 120 miles north of San Diego, back in 2022. The track was revealed to be

a 16-turn, 3.4 mile street circuit that mixed in high speed action with breathtaking views. It’s more than a bit odd for heavy stock cars to be running side-by-side with an aircraft carrier and other heavy-duty naval hardware as part of the landscape. The track featured a quick right-hand turn after the start/finish Line, before two quick 90-degree left-handers launch competitors on a high-octane journey around the San Diego Bay and one of the world’s foremost military installations. Some of the course highlights included: The Ellyson Start/Finish Line: Named in honor of Commander Theodore Ellyson, Naval Aviator Number One. His training at North Island laid the foundation for its commissioning as a naval air station in 1917 and eventual recognition as the “Birthplace of Naval Aviation.”; Turn 5, Carrier Corner: This sharp left-hand turn is located between the docking location of two aircraft carriers. Turn 8, Coronado Chicane: This begins a series of turns that will

provide drivers with a steep challenge as they speed toward the interior of the base. Turn 14, Runway Road: Aptly named, given it is located near the north end of Runway 18/36 at Halsey Field. The track provided differing grip levels where some places there was ultra smooth runway concrete only to transition into bumpy low-grip asphalt. Also of concern were downhill braking zones, and drivers unfamiliar with the track layout. On June 17th, the first NASCAR race took place with the Truck series hitting the track to run 50 laps in the "Navy Forged By The Sea 250". Popular names who returned to competition to run the race included Jimmie Johnson, Brendan Gaughan, and Jamie McMurray. The trucks took to the track first and

there was some chaos as the drivers took some time to get used to the track. The track featured old concrete, new concrete, old asphalt, new asphalt, and even crossed over some train tracks. It had several bumps, and even places where the race vehicles would lift completely off the ground. The truck race saw 16 trucks have to go to the rear for the start after many had run-ins with the wall during practice. In the two practice sessions, Kaden Honeycutt laid down the fastest lap of 89.7 mph. Layne Riggs had the second fastest laps, and Chandler Smith was third. When qualifying rolled around Honeycutt ended up on the pole edging out Layne Riggs. The race featured some past Cup racers including Jimmie Johnson, Jamie

McMurray, and Brendan Gaughan. The race turned out to be much more controlled than practice and qualifying with very few incidents. It had lots of close racing action. Lanes Riggs had a good truck all day, but teammate Chandler Smith passed Riggs with seven laps to go to grab the lead. Riggs and Honeycutt hounded Smith the rest of the race as those three drove away from the rest of the field. With just a couple laps to go someone pounded the wall and the race had to be red flagged to reposition the wall, and that bunched up the field. It took two over time restarts, but in the end Layne Riggs managed to capture the lead late and get the win. Saturday the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series tackle the tricky track as they ran 60 laps in the "Driven To Serve 250". Brent Crews won the pole with Parker Retzlaff along side. Jesse Love was not allowed to qualify due to a rules infraction, and also had to make a trip down trip road once the race started. Meanwhile long time O'Reilly competitor

On the first lap a man hole cover come loose and went through Day's radiator. Day went to the garage while the race cars limped around as track crews went to reweld the cover back on. This proved to be a time consuming process and NASCAR burned six laps riding around under yellow wasting laps. Finally they put out the red flag and sent the track crew out to check all 150 man hole covers and found some more that was coming loose. While this was going on, NASCAR allowed Day's team to work on their car under the red flag, usually against the rules. Day's crew got his car fixed prior to the race restarting, and NASCAR allowed Day to drive around the field and make up the four laps he had lost so he could be back on the lead lap; since the damage was no fault of his own. Certainly some odd goings-on. They ended up actually racing four laps of the 15 lap first stage. From there things settled

down and there was some good racing action. A big wreck with 25 laps to go saw 19 cars involved and it moved the retaining wall eight feet (see pic), prompting another extensive red flag, and eliminating several of the top contenders. Second place runner Taylor Gray spun leader Carson Kvapil with three laps to go, but on the last lap Austin Hill got a good run down into turn one and forced his way in to claim the lead. It was the first time Hill had won on a road course track. Gray finished second, Sheldon Creed third, and

Kvapil fourth. Sunday saw the weekend come to close as the Cup stars lined up to battle each other and challenge the unfamiliar track. The field's work would be cut out for them as they would have to see if they could beat Australian Supercar Series Champion Shane van Gisbergen; who had been absolutely dominant on street and road courses ever since running his first NASCAR Cup race at Chicago in 2023. He had seven wins, all on road/street courses. Another great road racer entered was Kevin Magnussen; and like van Gisbergen, he was driving for Trackhouse Racing. Also entered was Corey Heim and

Jimmie Johnson. Van Gisbergen won the pole for the Cup race; with Carson Hocevar along side. Stage #1 was won by Ryan Blaney, with Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, and Todd Gilliland rounding out the top five. Shortly after Stage two started; with Connor Zilisch and Austin Hill on the front row, Hill's rear tires broke loose and he got into Zilisch. van Gisbergen ran into the two of them, and the major wreck was on at the front of the field. Besides the three mentioned, great road racers like Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Ryan Blaney and others piled in and the field had to be red-flagged to once again have the wall repaired and put back in place. The rest of the race ran without too many incidents, and there was a lot of good competition all the way to the end. Points leader Tyler Reddick looked to be in command to take the win, but he was ran down by part time driver Corey Heim. Also on the prowl was Bubba Wallace and it looked like 23XI Racing might pull off a 1-2-3 finish. But Reddick got into the wall late in the race and cut down a tire, letting Heim get by and go on to claim his first Cup win in only his 13th ever Cup start. Just a few weeks prior to the win it was announced that Heim would move to the Cup Series full time driving the #35 for 23XI Racing in 2027. The race weekend turned out to be a huge success, but at this time it has not been announced if NASCAR will return for another event.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

NAVAL BASE CORONADO - SAN DIEGO CA