What to Watch: San Diego

Track: Qualcomm Circuit at Naval Base Coronado
Location: Coronado, California
Track length: 3.4 miles
When: 4 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,849,963
Race distance: 75 laps | 255 miles
Segments: 20 | 40 | 75
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments

Cup Series stars cleared for Coronado takeoff

CORONADO, Calif. — After all the pageantry and preparation that’s gone into making the first visit to Naval Base Coronado such a spectacle-saturated event, it’s time for the weekend’s final mission.

One of the NASCAR Cup Series season’s showcase races will set sail Sunday in the Anduril 250 (4 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the first premier series stock-car racing event on an active military base.

The temporary 3.4-mile Qualcomm Circuit has already been an inviting one, both for the throngs of fans venturing onto the Coronado grounds and for the concrete barriers lining the course that have welcomed all forms of contact since on-track activity began. The challenges of the bumpy layout — a creation of the mix of runways, roadways and rough patches — are one thing, but so is the competition, led by pre-race favorite and street-course expert Shane van Gisbergen.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

The Trackhouse Racing ace has won six of the last seven Cup Series races on road courses, including his first triumph of the season last month at Watkins Glen. SVG scoffed, however, at the notion that Sunday’s showdown might be a shoo-in, with the rest of the field left to duke it out for second place.

“It pisses me off a bit, like I feel like it disrespects my competition,” van Gisbergen said. “I hold my competition to a really high level. So yeah, I feel like I’ve spent the last little while talking myself down because I know that there’s 10 guys probably that can win on pure pace. In NASCAR, so much stuff can happen with strategies and stages, that there’s even more guys who can win. So I don’t think it’s going to be easy, that’s for sure.”

SVG’s stellar track record runs headlong into another immovable force in Denny Hamlin, who enters San Diego riding the sterling midseason wave of a three-race winning streak, part of a 4-for-5 tear in the win column in recent weeks. No one has been better during that span, but his hopes for a four-race sweep have some history weighing against it: Hamlin is 1-for-63 on road courses in his Cup Series career, with that lone win landing in 2016 at The Glen.

“There’s always a chance,” Hamlin said with a wry grin, “as long as we’ve got a heartbeat.” One positive factor in his favor: Each driver in the field is on virtually equal track-time footing for the inaugural Coronado event.

“I felt good coming into this weekend on speed and feel like, again, like everyone else, feels like there’s a little bit more to get there,” Hamlin said. “So I’m optimistic, as I would be at any road course that we’re going to. It’s the same for everyone, no one’s got any extra experience coming here, so it’s whoever can can adapt the quickest.”

Not surprisingly, van Gisbergen adapted the best in Saturday qualifying, putting the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet on the pole position at the front of the 39-car field for Sunday’s start. The new circuit has proven to be a treacherous one so far, a proving ground rife with multiple incidents in its sometimes snug contours.

The other inescapable reality so far this weekend has been the buzz, which multiple drivers said they sensed both in San Diego and on the island base’s surroundings. The event has already introduced big-league stock-car racing to a new crowd in its first two days, with more anticipated to take in the main event.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“It just seems like everybody that I’ve come across is in some way, shape or form is either aware that this is going on or have planned, they’re here because of this and that’s a really cool thing,” Chase Elliott said. “I know there’s a lot of energy around our events in general at other places, too, but this being unique and just the logistics around it, I feel like we’ve gotten a real good firsthand look at just how excited people are, and yeah, that’s been really fun to be a part of.”

In the details …

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• San Diego hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for San Diego’s inaugural | View gallery
• Behind the scenes: Inside the building of Qualcomm Circuit | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Pocono’s positioning and Coronado nuggets | Listen now
• Power Rankings: Hamlin steady atop Top 20 for San Diego | This week’s ranks
• Sunday Setup: Tires on top of mind for crew chiefs | Read more