Records and facts

As this is an inaugural event, there is no history there. Among active drivers, Chase Elliott and Shane van Gisbergen have the most road and street victories with seven each. Van Gisbergen's wins have all come since 2023. All-time, Jeff Gordon leads with nine victories. Tony Stewart has eight, then Elliott and van Gisbergen with seven. Five different drivers (Bobby Allison, Kyle Larson, Richard Petty, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace) each have six.

Track Facts
Track / Race Length:  3.4-mile street/airport circuit, 75 laps (255 miles)
Banking: Varies, mostly flat
Grandstand Seating: 50,000
Pit Road Speed: 35 mph
Pace Car Speed: 40 mph
Opened: 2026

Website: http://www.nascarsandiego.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NASCARSanDiego

Pre-Race Schedule:

Practice: Friday, June 19, 5 - 5:50 p.m. ET on Sports on Prime YouTube/Prime Video

Qualifying: Saturday, June 13, 2:30 p.m. on Prime Video

Say What?!

"Turn 1 is pretty high commit, high speed. Turn 2 is very downhill. And then it gets pretty rough through [turns] 3, 4 and the exit of 5 is super rough. They’ve worked on a couple patches like the railroad tracks and stuff like that. They said they would pave it some to help it out, but it’s gonna be bumpy and it’s gonna be tight. It’s gonna be a lot like Chicago. Chicago was narrow, bumpy, things like that, so we’ve dug into it a good bit the best we can. I’m just looking forward to seeing it all put together. It will be challenging. It’s a big racetrack and something like three-and-a-half miles, so there are a lot of corners to do well in or mess up in, but it’ll be a unique challenge.” - Ryan Blaney

"I think it will be the hardest road race that anybody in this garage has ever run, just from the standpoint there are so many corners. I think we have labeled 16, but if we labeled like some other tracks, it would probably come out to 30. It’s gonna be very difficult. It’s very narrow in places. It’s extremely wide in others, to the point where you’re almost trying to figure out where in the world you should be in that 100-feet of racetrack to set up for a corner. Trying to figure out what our spotters are gonna be able to see and what we’re gonna be left on our own to do. Everybody in this room knows that’s dangerous if you leave it up to the steering wheel holders to decide if we’re clear or not, but it’s gonna be rough in a lot of places. I’ve laughed about it. It’s fitting to be near aircraft carriers. We’re gonna be in the air quite a bit, and I think that it’s rough in a lot of ways. It’s gonna be tricky. It’s gonna be very difficult to go in there and figure out how to get that thing right from the get-go. All of the sim that we’re gonna continue to run and have run already, it’s not gonna be the real thing until you get there. I remember Chicago for the first time. All of the things you were able to do in the sim and knowing there was no penalty. The turn four entry speed that we carried in the simulator and then you get to the racetrack and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I can wreck a race car here if I drive like the sim,’ but I’m telling you right now that’s exactly where we’re gonna be. We’re gonna have places like that, where we get comfortable in the simulator and we’re gonna say, ‘Oh, those bumps aren’t bad. I can drive through it,’ and you’re gonna get to the racetrack and that’s not going to be the case. It’s all we have and it is a very important tool, but it’s not reality at the end of the day and we’re gonna have a lot of learning to do when we do get there." - Chris Buescher

"San Diego is going to be badass. It's always fun to go somewhere new and try new things. It’s all about the atmosphere and the feeling you get when you show up. It's cool that we're all paired with our own squadrons. I'm honored to meet service members in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One. It’s going to be special to get to know the people that are the real heroes, and that’s really cool. I don’t have a lot of thoughts on the racetrack because I haven’t really seen it other than knowing you will have to be aggressive without crossing the line. I was shocked to see how long the lap is already. I know they are trying to repave parts of it and make it smoother, but it’s going to be rough. We’ll find out when we get out there." - AJ Allmendinger

"It’s going to be fun, obviously a really cool setting at Naval Base Coronado. We had the chance to get some laps in on the simulator over the last few weeks, which has been helpful in getting acclimated to a new track. It's a street course, so it is going to have a lot of character. Obviously, it's going to be a fun weekend, and we appreciate the men and women who have given us the opportunity and hospitality to doing something that we haven't done before, especially Squadron VRM-50. The track itself will have a lot of similar characteristics to Chicago, tight, twisty, technical, with high speeds, and some bumpy sections, transitioning from streets to an airfield, with a lot of different textures and different aggregates. It's going to be exciting. There will be tight, blind corners, but we look at this weekend as a great opportunity for us. I am ready to get out there, have a good day with Defense Unicorns, pick up a few points on The Chase cutline, and hopefully celebrate in Victory Lane." - Michael McDowell

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at  [email protected]. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Orlando Ramirez of Getty Images.