Reel Racing: ‘NASCAR vs. Navy’ Stars Drivers in Fun Promotional Short

So Sunday’s (June 21) NASCAR Cup Series race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego was pretty sick. Some of the races turned into mayhem — for example, I figured I’d get home around 9:30 p.m. ET Friday night from a friend’s gig in time for the last couple laps of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. I did, but the race went on for so long that I ended up seeing the final hour.

But Sunday’s Cup race was pretty solid — drivers kept it generally clean, we had a great battle for the win between Corey Heim and Tyler Reddick, and then Heim scored his first career win (and the first for 23XI Racing’s No. 67). That’s not to mention the awesome, scenic shots of cars roaring by the conning towers and superstructure of the USS Carl Nimitz, the waters of San Diego Bay and other military ships and aircraft.

In the lead-up to the weekend, we got NASCAR vs. Navy: The San Diego Mini Movie. This short film kind of dropped out of nowhere, but served as fun promotion for the race.

There are plenty of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick vibes abounding in this nearly-half-hour-long short film, which kind of meant I was automatically gonna like it.

Ryan Blaney drives onto the scene at Naval Base Coronado to start things off, backed by what sounds like a live version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” and he’s joined by Christopher Bell and Connor Zilisch as they speed down one of the base’s runways.

Chase Briscoe flanks them to their left in his Bronco, along with Carson Hocevar in his “Dale truck” (canonically, it’s kind of the Mike Skinner truck, though), and Noah Gragson eventually meets up with them at a hangar after speeding in on a jet ski.

As someone who recently jet skied for the first time a few weeks back — going 50-plus mph on one of those things is a blast — they should have gotten me as his stunt double.

Our opening scene comes in the aforementioned hangar, the first of many similarities to Top Gun: Maverick; a homage to the scene where Cruise walks in and begins teaching the fighter pilots, right down to the immense American flag on the wall.

It’s a half-hour short film, so I’m not gonna run through the whole plot, but it’s a pretty fun time.

The Anchorman-esque news broadcasts (featuring “Bert Rubber” and “Angela Turnwell”) are fun little bookends to some of the segments. I love that the drivers get their own pilot suits, call signs and challenges to go up against the Navy fighters.

And, of course, the short film has the beach dodgeball scene — evocative of the “dogfight football” scene in Maverick, which itself was meant to evoke the volleyball scene in Top Gun — which is a lot of fun. Gragson and Blaney racing the cops on the tarmac is entertaining, too.

Zilisch gets to go up in a fighter jet in another scene reminiscent of Top Gun: Maverick, and the bar is similar to The Hard Deck in the movie as well.

I also like that the script had some cussing in it, too. Not that curse words are anything new to anybody on the face of this planet, but so often these guys’ personalities get watered down or bleeped out on Radioactive, so I like hearing the uncensored versions.

All of this culminates in Blaney racing a fighter jet down the runway at the end, which is one of the sickest things ever put to film, period.

But, of course, everything ends with mutual respect between the Navy and the drivers and the race that is still set to happen.

Now, I won’t say any of the drivers are the greatest actors in the world. Blaney is solid enough (and he just had that appearance on Eli Manning’s undercover show), but the rest of the drivers (particularly Hocevar and Gragson) essentially just embody their real-life personalities.

Jordan Drake plays the central pilot Row, and he’s been in a couple things (including 80 for Brady), while base commander actor Bradford Haynes was in The Change-Up and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Real-life Coronado commanding officer Loren Jacobi (nicknamed Wookie) has a cameo as the second-in-command.

Director Mickey “Disney” Fitz only has this to his credit when it comes to films or short films, but he has a couple other racing-related “video” credits on IMDb.

The only things that could’ve made it better were cameos from someone, anyone, associated with Maverick or the original Top Gun. Maybe have Anthony Edwards (though Goose is dead in the franchise’s canon) show up as an aging mentor. Jennifer Connelly could come back as the owner of the bar, just like Maverick. If the budget was big enough, fly Tom Cruise out to set for half a day.

But overall, NASCAR vs. Navy: The San Diego Mini Movie is a fun little promotion. It’s definitely worth a watch or two, and it’s a good time. It’s available on Prime or YouTube.