What Happened?
In only his 13th career NASCAR Cup Series start, Corey Heim passed his 23XI Racing teammate and points leader Tyler Reddick in the final laps to win the inaugural race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, Calif., on Sunday (June 21).
Bubba Wallace finished second, rallying back from two laps down after his right-front wheel came off early. Kyle Larson finished third, Zane Smith finished fourth, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five.
Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Riley Herbst, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell finished in the sixth to 10th positions.
What Really Happened?
Heim battled with Reddick cleanly to earn his first Cup Series win, while Reddick bumped him out of the groove as he tried to get the lead back.
Reddick’s tire then cut down on the next lap, dropping him to a 25th-place finish and shrinking his points lead down to eight over Denny Hamlin after he finished 14th.
The Chase cut line also got tighter after the biggest crash of the day occurred on a restart in the second stage that took out two heavy favorites, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch.
Austin Hill slid into Zilisch, forcing him into the wall and setting off a pileup that included van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez and others.
Now, Erik Jones is 14th in points, 10 points over the cut line, Austin Cindric is eight points to the good in 15th, and Ryan Preece jumped up into the final spot, five points ahead of the cut line.
Van Gisbergen dropped out and into 17th after his crash, and veterans Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski follow next in the standings, 10 and 13 points below the cut line, respectively.
How Did Racing at a Naval Base Go?
Going into the weekend, I had the impression that this would be a one-off event because of it being the 250th anniversary of the United States, and that it would be difficult to run it back at an active naval base.
After the first two races of the weekend, I was convinced that this would be the only time NASCAR raced at Naval Base Coronado.
The racing product was fine in both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races, but the main problem for many was that the races dragged on too long.
There were multiple reasons for the long races, one being that caution laps took forever, and with stage racing, we were guaranteed to get two of them. The other reason was for the three red flags that we saw over those two races.
On Friday, Tyler Ankrum‘s crash broke part of the wall, resulting in a red flag that lasted almost 10 minutes.
Then on Saturday, there were two red flags in the O’Reilly race, and the first one was for a problem with the course itself.
Corey Day hit a manhole cover on the first lap, leading to his radiator being damaged after the cover went through his grill.
NASCAR not only stopped the race to fix the issue, but they allowed Day’s team to repair the car under the red flag and eventually unlap themselves, basically giving them a redo.
The decision was understandable since it wasn’t the No. 17 team’s fault the manhole cover was exposed, but it was an unprecedented decision by NASCAR that usually goes against the rule book.
After that nearly 20-minute red flag, the race had to be stopped again later on after a hard crash took place on a restart when Sam Mayer broke the outside wall in turn 1.
The hard impact and carnage resulted in a red flag extending just short of 45 minutes, so by the time the checkered flag waved, the sun was setting on the West Coast.
Then on Sunday, the SVG, Zilisch and Hill restart crash caused another red flag, but the Cup race featured long green flag runs in the final stage, and the race was arguably the best show of the weekend.
The Naval Base Coronado course featured many passing zones, and it featured a slippery surface that chewed up tires, forcing NASCAR’s best to save their tires over long runs that produced multiple strategies.
The battle for the win between Reddick and Heim was exciting, as both drivers were balancing aggression with precision and good race craft as they didn’t want to burn their stuff up and let other drivers catch them.
At the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised with how the racing turned out, and I wouldn’t mind seeing this course get another chance next year to improve on problems that were exposed this year.
However, it wouldn’t be shocking if this was a one-off event since it was already difficult enough to schedule one race weekend on an active naval base, so we’ll have to wait and see what NASCAR’s plan is for a potential street race in 2027.
Paint Scheme of the Race
There were a lot of sharp-looking patriotic paint schemes for this weekend’s race, but I’m going to have to go with Jimmie Johnson‘s paint scheme as he returned to the Cup Series near his hometown of El Cajon.
The No. 84 Toyota featured elements from both San Diego and Jimmie Johnson’s legendary racing career.
Johnson finished the race on the lead lap in 28th.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series will once again race at a road course in California next Sunday (June 28) as they head north to Wine Country for the annual event at Sonoma Raceway.
Sonoma will be the final road course race of the season, and it will also mark the first race of the bracket-styled In-Season Challenge, which is back for its second year.
It will be the 18th race of the Cup season, with coverage starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT. Van Gisbergen is the defending winner of the race.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
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