NASCAR Adds San Diego Street Race to Replace Chicago on 2026 Schedule

The event will take place on Naval Base Coronado.

The San Diego skyline looms over the Pacific Ocean in this view from 2019. / Bryon Houlgrave/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

If you're a NASCAR fan in the San Diego area, 2026 is your year.

NASCAR will run a street race at Naval Base Coronado in the '26 season, it announced in a Wednesday afternoon release. The race will replace the Grant Park 165, a street race held in Chicago each of the last three years that has been paused for next season.

“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 and chief venue and racing innovations officer Ben Kennedy said in a release.

NASCAR currently has one California-based race—the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, a longstanding engagement that dates to 1989. As recently as 2023, it had three including the non-points Clash in Los Angeles (held in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 2025).

Per Kennedy, the race will make liberal use of military imagery and infrastructure.

“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 the release. “They’ll be going past 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.”

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