NASCAR is working toward finalizing a deal to race on a street course next year in the San Diego area, multiple industry sources told The Athletic, which would return its premier Cup Series to the Southern California market after a multi-year absence.
NASCAR and the city of San Diego have not yet agreed on a deal, but discussions are ongoing, and it is expected that an agreement will be reached, according to those sources. An announcement is tentatively slated for next month, pending a finalized deal.
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NASCAR and Sports San Diego, the city’s sports tourism commission, declined comment.
Adding a race in San Diego would accomplish NASCAR’s stated goal of returning to Southern California, a move likely to be popular in the garage and throughout the sport’s landscape. It would be the first points race in the market since California Speedway in Fontana was indefinitely shuttered in 2023. NASCAR last raced in Southern California in 2024, when it held the final of three straight season-opening exhibition races on a purposely-built oval inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
But racing at the Coliseum was never viewed as a long-term solution for NASCAR to maintain a presence in the region. NASCAR closed California Speedway, which it owns, with the intent of remodeling the facility, reconfiguring the track, and eventually returning to race there on a permanent basis. These plans, announced in September 2020, have since been put on hold.
With California Speedway off the schedule, NASCAR has explored multiple options to hold a points race in Southern California — a key market to the league, its teams, media rights partners and sponsors. This search led NASCAR to San Diego, which has never hosted a Cup race and offers a picturesque setting to construct the course, with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop. The exact location and layout for the course is not yet known, industry sources indicated.
NASCAR has raced in downtown Chicago for the past two years, a test of its hopes to bring the sport to temporary tracks in more populated areas. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
A race in San Diego would be NASCAR’s second city street course race in three years after introducing one in downtown Chicago in 2023, the first time in NASCAR’s modern era (1972 to present) that Cup competed on such a track. That race is considered a key development for NASCAR as part of an initiative to bring high-level stock car racing to major metropolitan markets, as opposed to the majority of its tracks, which are located in less populated areas.
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NASCAR’s intent with Chicago, which will host the third edition of its event on July 6, was to offer a proof-of-concept to other cities throughout the United States that it could design a course incorporating city streets and generate attention and tourism revenue for the community. NASCAR and the city of Chicago are in the last year of a three-year contract, though NASCAR does have an option to return in 2026 and has said it wants to continue racing there.
How San Diego would fit within the 2026 schedule is not yet clear. A current race would have to be dropped to accommodate any addition, as the schedule is presently at its 38-race cap (36 points races plus two exhibitions). With the Chicago deal potentially coming to an end, NASCAR could swap one city street course for another, but the league has also shown a willingness in recent years to shift a date from an existing track with two races on the schedule to accommodate a new addition it feels will enhance the sport. The addition of the Mexico City race this year, for example, led NASCAR to drop one of the two races at Richmond Raceway in Virginia.
(Top photo of San Diego skyline and the San Diego Bay, with the Coronado Bridge in the foreground: Joe Sohm / Visions of America / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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