The case for Nascar in San Diego
- Jackson Lambros
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Written by Jackson Lambros, Edited by Gabriel Tsui
Of all of the cities Americans call home, there’s no place quite like San Diego. Built in the nation's southwestern corner, the town once known for its naval stations has evolved into a paradise for Southern Californians. Its numerous beaches, combined with its nearly perfect climate, have drawn countless Americans over the past 75 years. Now the eighth largest city in America, over 1.4 million call it home.
NASCAR is on the way to joining the club. With the Cup series’ Chicago street race running its final contracted race in several weeks time, renovations to Chicagoland Speedway show wavering chances that the series will return to Grant Park next year.
Regardless, NASCAR leadership has shown consistent interest in taking its street race elsewhere, with Pittsburgh and San Diego emerging as the final two candidates. Racing in the steel city could show premise, but going south gives NASCAR the opportunity to hit the reset button in Southern California in a brand new town.
Motorsports is no stranger to America’s finest city. Before hosting the PGA’s Farmers Open, sports cars tackled the seaside hills of Torrey Pines. In the late 80s and early 90s, the Del Mar fairgrounds hosted a different kind of horsepower, hosting the IMSA Camel GT series from 1987 to 1992.
An international scale raceway was proposed in 1986, but with the proposed site just 150 feet from the Mexican-American border, smuggling and trafficking fears hurt funding, and the track lost investors before ground broke.
That isn’t to say racing is nonexistent in San Diego. Supercross has become a staple in the town, with an annual presence in the city since 1980. But the fact remains top-tier four-wheel racing has never been a mainstay. Why here and now for NASCAR?
Outside of racing, the city has always had a vibrant sports scene. Of note is the San Diego Padres, the baseball club that’s called the city home since 1969. The team’s recent success has made Petco Park the place to be. With a capacity of over 41,000 fans, the team played in front of a sold-out crowd 56 times in 2024, a fan attendance only second to the Dodgers and Yankees.
“It’s a very unique sports town because the teams that have success here are the teams that just try,” says Braden Surprenant. The Sports talk host and fourth-generation San Diegan knows the culture and the city more than anybody else. “You don’t even have to be good, but you’ve seen the effort the Padres have put in.
“They haven’t won any championships, but you know they’ve spent the money to show they want to win, so the city shows out in full force. When the Clippers failed and the Rockets failed, it was a small military town. We have people from all over the world here that love sports and love going to events, and all of them do really well.”
Local fans are nearly a lock in for the race, but it’s the tourist appeal that separates San Diego from Pittsburgh. With picturesque weather year-round and countless beaches, parks and museums, the destination-city aspects of San Diego doesn’t just trump Pittsburgh, but could match the draw that Las Vegas has to bring fans in for two races a year.
But a San Diego race is more than a potential want for the fans, but a borderline need for the series. Yinzers already have a race two hours east at the tricky triangle of Pocono, but look at anybody in Southern California, and the choice comes to two five-hour marathons. Either North to Sonoma, or East to Phoenix, or Las Vegas.
Plain and simple, Southern California has become a major blind spot in the NASCAR calendar. Their long-time home of Auto Club speedway closed in 2023 in hopes of being converted from a superspeedway into a half-mile bullring, but with a $300 million dollar estimate to complete the track, and with property values rising in the area, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps admitted that the track’s future remains in jeopardy.
The Clash at the Coliseum stood in for three years, but with the LA Olympics approaching, and the race relocating to the historic Bowman Gray, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see racing inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum again. The league then set its sights on the legendary streets of Long Beach, and had it not been for Roger Penske’s acquisition of the race in 2024, we may have seen 40 Cup cars roaring down Shoreline Drive.
For NASCAR, all of the writing is on the wall. A street race is the solution to reignite NASCAR viewership in SoCal. They may have failed to buy Long Beach in 2024, but the league can build their own just two hours down I5, and give a city hungry for racing the event it’s been waiting for nearly 50 years.
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