NASCAR is going racing on an active military base for the very first time with a brand-new street circuit, bringing all three national divisions.
The 3.4-mile (5.472 km) street course features 16 turns, and construction for the temporary Qualcomm Circuit began in late May.
The race weekend is set to take place on the weekend of June 19-June 21 is NASCAR’s way of contributing to the America 250 celebrations across the country, celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States of America.
San Diego marks the third of four road/street courses on the 2026 Cup Series calendar. Tyler Reddick won earlier this year at COTA, while Shane van Gisbergen took a dominant victory at Watkins Glen, and has won five of the last six road/street course events. After San Diego, the Cup Series heads to Sonoma Raceway for its final road course vent of the year.
The layout
iRacing released a full video of a lap around the street course. It begins with the Ellyson Start/Finish Line, named in honor of Commander Theodore Ellyson, Naval Aviator Number One, and a man who was integral to the early days of U.S. military aviation.
The first corner is a sweeping right-hander, before climbing a small hill into a downhill braking section on approach to back-to-back 90-degree left-handers. There’s another sweeping right-hander at Turn 4, with drivers forced to feather the throttle through there as they muscle the Next Gen cars around this lengthy street course.
That’s when the drivers get their first true straightaway before another sweeper (going left) at Turn 5, where they will have to woe the cars up quite a bit as they nearly hit fifth gear. That area is called Carrier Corner, and is positioned between the docking location of two aircraft carriers.
Turn 6 is another heavy braking zone into a right-hander, while things get very narrow into a sweeping left-hander at Turn 7. They will run right along the Pacific Ocean down the narrow backstretch before braking for a very technical Turn 8 and 9, called the Coronado Chicane. These incredibly wide turns are reminiscent of the the first and final corners at Sebring.
Turns 10 and 11 are less like corners, and more like esses. The drivers will then have to navigate a true chicane with a tire pack to their right at Turn 12. Turn 14, called Runway Road, sits near the north end of Runway 18/36 at Halsey Field.
At this point, they are truly driving on the runway with lots of off-throttle time as they race through the twists and bends of the backend of the course. Thee track widens out again before a very slow-speed chicane, which will certainly be an action spot. All that’s left after that is a quick left-hand kink back onto the frontstretch.
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