Latest news with #BenKennedy
TimesLIVE
6 days ago
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Nascar to hold street race at San Diego naval base
Nascar announced on Wednesday it will hold events at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego next year, marking its first-ever racing events at an active military base. The street races will be held from June 19-21 2026, culminating with the Cup Series race. The races coincide with the 250th anniversary of the US Navy. 'It'll be a blend of traditional street racing in a way where we'll be winding our ways through some of the streets on the base,' said Nascar executive vice-president Ben Kennedy. 'They'll be going past [aircraft] carriers. They'll eventually go out onto the tarmac, probably by some military aircraft, maybe a couple of F-18s out there, and then back towards the entrance to the base.' The races will mark Nascar's return to Southern California for the first time since February 2024. The series ran the Clash at the Coliseum from 2022-24 in Los Angeles. Nascar held events at California Speedway in Fontana from 1997 until 2023.
USA Today
6 days ago
- Automotive
- USA Today
NASCAR reveals new street course race in San Diego for 2026
Two years ago, the NASCAR Cup Series made history with the sport's inaugural street course race through Chicago. Since the first race in 2023, the course's been a unique challenge for drivers on the grid. Next year, they'll have a new street course to prepare for. NASCAR officials announced that a new street course in San Diego will debut in the 2026 Cup Series season. The race will be held on Naval Base Coronado and replace the Chicago Street Course on the calendar. There will be three days of action from San Diego next year with the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Cup Series all competing in NASCAR's second-ever street course. It'll be a historic venue in its own right; this will be NASCAR's first race on a naval base. The race weekend will mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy. 'What a special way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Navy, 250th anniversary of our country and put on what is going to be undoubtedly the most anticipated event of 2026,' NASCAR executive vice president Ben Kennedy said in a statement. 'And I'm bullish on it being the best sporting event of the year.' Lawsuit latest: Updates on 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports vs. NASCAR lawsuit Here's what we know about the event. When will NASCAR race in San Diego? NASCAR's race weekend in San Diego will be June 19-21, 2026, during Father's Day weekend. That weekend also coincides with the anniversary of the U.S. Navy and will take that weekend from the Pocono race from the 2025 calendar. NASCAR San Diego course The official course layout has yet to be released. NASCAR officials state that they're driving around the base in person and using the popular racing simulation video game iRacing to help iron out the layout. They used iRacing for both the Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum and Chicago street race events. The course will likely use Naval Air Station North Island's streets as well as the runway tarmac. Officials expect the circuit will be roughly three miles in length. By comparison, the Chicago Street Course is 2.14 miles. 'It'll be a blend of traditional street racing in a way where we'll be winding our ways through some of the streets on the base,' Kennedy said in a statement. 'They'll be going past (aircraft) carriers. They'll eventually go out onto the tarmac, probably by some military aircraft, maybe a couple of F-18s out there, and then back towards the entrance to the base.' Why is NASCAR racing in San Diego? From 1997 through 2024, the Cup Series had a race in Southern California every year with one exception - 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 2025 season is the first without a race in the area for no restricted reason since 1996. NASCAR's military ties, options for tarmac and street sections and the backdrop of downtown San Diego made the naval base a worthwhile venue. 'We contemplated a number of places, not just in San Diego, but the greater Southern California region,' Kennedy said. 'Naturally, I think we all started to gravitate towards the military base, seeing that we knew that the 250th anniversary was upcoming, our natural ties that we have to the military and then the location of it. I mean, you couldn't ask for a better location than Coronado, sitting between downtown San Diego, the Pacific Ocean and not far from Tijuana, either.' No specific number of events has been confirmed, but it's very likely San Diego will have at least three years, much like Chicago and Los Angeles Coliseum events. NASCAR's future in Chicago NASCAR confirmed it will not return to Chicago in 2026 but did not rule out a return in the future.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR Will Run a Race Around the Runways of a U.S. Navy Airbase in San Diego Next June
NASCAR may not be racing at the Chicago street circuit next year, but the series is not done with temporary tracks in big cities just yet. On Wednesday, the series announced plans to run a race at a Naval Base Coronado, a tiny island that makes up part of the city of San Diego. The event, which is only confirmed for 2026 as part of a one-year deal, will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States Navy itself. The track should look more like an airport circuit (think Cleveland and Edmonton's former IndyCar rounds, or what Formula E currently runs in Berlin) than a more conventional street circuit, but a layout has not yet been confirmed. NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy told Fox Sports that the track would be around three miles long and built around "the tarmac and the apron areas of the runways but likely not the runways themselves." The base previously held the Coronado Speed Festival, a historic race that also occasionally featured Mazda's MX-5 Cup, from 1997 through 2016. NASCAR's layout is unlikely to be the same as this track, but it could use many of the same stretches of pavement. Another San Diego landmark, the Del Mar horse racing track, hosted a street circuit built in its parking lot in both the 1960s and 1980s. San Diego has not been targeted as a major auto racing market since, although fans from the region are about 90 minutes away from the annual Long Beach Grand Prix in Los Angeles. Since that annual event is in April, the two temporary circuit races are unlikely to pull from the other's audience in significant numbers. NASCAR's San Diego debut is set to run from June 19th to June 21st. All three national series will run on the track, including the Truck Series that skipped Chicago in all three years that the event was held. You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
Fox News
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox News
NASCAR Bringing Race To San Diego Naval Base In 2026
CORONADO, Calif. — NASCAR has landed on a unique way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Navy. It will race on a naval base. NASCAR Cup Series drivers will compete June 21, 2026 on a still-to-be-finalized course on Naval Base Coronado, capping a weekend that will include a Craftsman Truck Series race June 19 and an Xfinity Series race June 20. "This is another historic moment for our sport," NASCAR Executive Vice President Ben Kennedy said. The event outside of San Diego will be the first NASCAR points race in Southern California since 2023 and replaces the Chicago Street Race on the 2026 schedule, albeit not on the July 4 weekend. The idea of racing on a military base has been floated the last few years in NASCAR schedule discussions and was an idea that Kennedy said "felt like just such a natural opportunity for us to explore." "We've talked to a handful of military bases," Kennedy said. "This one was a really good fit for us. ... .We felt like it was a good opportunity for us to get back to Southern California market and re-engage our fans." The course will be roughly three miles and will utilize the tarmac and the apron areas of the runways but likely not the runways themselves, said Kennedy, who oversees NASCAR's scheduling and new events. The course will be designed to also limit disruptions of base operations. Kennedy said NASCAR expects "tens of thousands" of fans to be able to attend the event. NASCAR will have a general admission ticket that would allow people to roam to various temporary grandstands as well as to visit military displays. There also will be temporary suites erected for the event. NASCAR is partnering with Sports San Diego for promotion of the event, which for now is a one-year deal. "We'd love to kick it off and be at Naval Base Coronado for a number of years, but this could also be an opportunity for us to move it to other military installations across the country, too," Kennedy said. The announcement of the San Diego race adds another element into the still-evolving 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The race will be the 17th event of the Cup schedule (the last race televised by Prime), meaning that NASCAR has 20 weekends available for the final 19 races (the season finale already has been announced as Nov. 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway). Where that off-weekend will come and the rest of the schedule — other than the preseason Clash Feb. 1 at Bowman Gray Stadium and season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 — is still to be finalized. Could that off-weekend be the July 4 weekend? NASCAR has traditionally raced on that weekend, including at Daytona for decades until 2020 when NASCAR moved the Daytona race to the regular-season finale in August. "More than likely, we'll have an event on that weekend, not sure exactly where it's going to land yet, but it is an important part of our schedule," Kennedy said about a race around the July 4 holiday. Whether there could be additional new venues on the 2026 schedule is also still to be determined. Since NASCAR won't race the streets of Chicago, there is some movement to race at the Chicagoland Speedway in somewhat nearby Joliet. NASCAR announced last week that it would engage in talks with Chicago politicians to return the street race in 2027 on a date other than around July 4. "It's a tremendous market for us to be in," Kennedy said about Chicago. "We're bullish about getting it back on the schedule in 2027 and beyond." If NASCAR does add Chicagoland back until it returns to the Chicago streets, where that race would come from is still to be determined. NASCAR is still in negotiations to return to Mexico City next year, with a preference for a spring date around the likely Easter off-weekend and well before the World Cup. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
NBC Sports
6 days ago
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
San Diego fills one spot on 2026 NASCAR Cup schedule but questions remain
NASCAR's announcement Wednesday that it will race on a military base in 2026 filled one spot on next year's Cup schedule. But many questions remain. Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer, said Wednesday that the 2026 Cup schedule should be out in 'the next few weeks or so.' Dustin Long, Here is what has been announced or revealed about the 2026 NASCAR Cup schedule: Feb. 1 — Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium Feb. 15 — Daytona 500 May 24 — Coca-Cola 600 June 21 — San Diego/Naval Base Coronado Nov. 8 — Homestead-Miami Speedway (championship race) NASCAR recently announced that it will 'pause' the Chicago Street Race and not hold it next year. NASCAR hopes to run that event again in 2027 but its absence next year leaves the July 4 weekend spot open on the NASCAR calendar. 'We've looked at a handful of options for the July 4 weekend,' Kennedy said in response to a question from NBC Sports. ' … Not sure exactly where it's going to land yet, but it is an important part of our schedule.' The summer Daytona race had been the traditional home for the event on or near July 4 until that race was moved to the regular season finale in 2020. Since then, the July 4 weekend race for Cup has been at Indianapolis (2020), Road America (2021-22) and the Chicago Street Race (2023-25). Another key element with the schedule is how many street and road course races there will be. There are six this year: Circuit of the Americas, Mexico City, Chicago Street Race, Sonoma, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval. Since 2021, there have been at least five road course events on the Cup schedule. In 2021, there were seven such races. The Cup Series had two road course events (Watkins Glen and Sonoma) before the Charlotte Roval was added to the schedule in 2018. Brad Keselowski has been vocal in the sport having too many road course races, stating on social media earlier this month: 'We went from 2 to 6 Road course races, Possibly 7 next year. 'NASCAR was successfully built as a primarily oval racing series. IMSA was built as the primary road course series in North America. IMSA will always do road racing better than NASCAR and that's ok. 'Yes, TOO Many Road courses in NASCAR.' He's not alone in that feeling. 'I would love to do a couple a year,' Erik Jones said this month on the optimal number of road course races in a season. 'I was totally happy running (Sonoma) and Watkins Glen. I don't know. I'm probably not the right guy to ask. I grew up as an oval racer. I didn't race a road course until 10 years ago for the first time. 'My opinion is –- this car is not, just hasn't put on as good of a show on road courses that the old car did, to be frank. I think it is fun to go to different places, but I could see us doing (Sonoma), Watkins Glen and one street course. I think you would be hard pressed to find many that wouldn't agree with that. 'We know where this car puts on good races -– the mile-and-a-half stuff is great –- there is plenty of those tracks that we can go back to that are sitting there and primed to race, so I would love to go back to some of those.' Kennedy said NASCAR is 'keeping a pulse' on the topic. 'We get a lot of feedback, certainly from our partners, from our fans, from the industry, teams and drivers on it,' he said in response to a question from NBC Sports. 'I would say it's bit of a mixed bag. You have some fans that absolutely love the road course racing and would like to see more of it, and then you have others that, conversely, would like to see less of it. 'For us, it's really just finding a good blend. We feel like we're at a good number or around a good number right where you can still have the diversity of being able to go to a number of road courses, some historic ones that we go to, a street course or two, and then still keeping a majority of our events — and especially the ones during the playoffs — as to what fans would typically expect of traditional NASCAR racing and that's oval racing. We're proud of the product we put on from that perspective. 'So that said, we're constantly thinking about it. We're evaluating it, something we're considering for the '26 schedule.'
