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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series-Practice and Qualifying Sep 6, 2025 Madison, Illinois, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen 88 looks on during practice and qualifying for the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Madison World Wide Technology Raceway Illinois USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xJoexPuetzx 20250906_tbs_pa2_018
Imago
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series-Practice and Qualifying Sep 6, 2025 Madison, Illinois, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen 88 looks on during practice and qualifying for the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Madison World Wide Technology Raceway Illinois USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xJoexPuetzx 20250906_tbs_pa2_018
We are just months away from making history by racing at the San Diego Naval base, and eyebrows are being raised about certain problems that the track could bring up. And now, while supporting NASCAR’s top brass, one Cup driver is laying it out.
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Shane van Gisbergen immediately set the tone for what could be one of the most unpredictable races on the calendar, and he didn’t sugarcoat it.
“The way the braking zones are and the way the flow of the track is kind of different. Still got 90-degree corners and lots of 90-degree corners, but I think there’s a bit more technique and stuff into San Diego around the backs,” he said of the track. “Like, there’s a lot of risk versus reward stuff. So yeah, I think it’s a little different.”
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And if SVG’s hint at risk versus reward wasn’t enough, NASCAR’s own brass has practically confirmed it, and this track isn’t going to play nice. Set inside the naval base Coronado, the West Coast Street circuit comes with built-in challenges you simply can’t engineer away.
According to NASCAR’s EVP chief racing development officer John Probst, drivers have spent months in simulators trying to find a tune in the 3.4-mile, 16-turn layout, but one section continues to stand out and not in a good way.
Turn 4, cheekily dubbed as “Carrier Corner,” is not just any other right-hand; it’s a narrow, high-stakes transition flank by real-world naval infrastructure, including rails used to load aircraft carriers.
In other words, there is zero margin for error. Probst all but admitted NASCAR has to live with it and not fix it.
“I feel like every week I learn all the nuances of all these tracks and this one’s no different. I still have so much to learn here”
Shane van Gisbergen with insight on why Bristol is such a tough race track. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/CBzRtXbpQZ
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 11, 2026
“Hats off to SVG and [Austin] Cindric, [Christopher] Bell, [William] Byron, drivers like that have been working with Jerry Kaproth here at the R&D center to finalize the course layout,” Probst said. “We’ll mitigate what we can, but… the drivers will have to deal with some unique features that a course like that will throw at us. But certainly, it’s an honor for us to go out there and race in June.”
And that is where things get spicy. This isn’t a purpose-built track; it is a functioning military base, meaning drivers will have to adapt to the track and not the other way around.
And then there is the surface itself, which might be the biggest wildcard of all. Years of heavy-duty use have left sections of the asphalt uneven and bumpy. NASCAR executives have already flagged this as a concern, essentially warning teams to expect a rough ride.
Combine that with tight 90° corners, unforgiving barriers, and technical breaking zones, and suddenly SVG’s words don’t sound like a throwaway comment; it sounds like a preview of chaos waiting to unfold.
This is just one of the many changes NASCAR has brought up in the track schedule, as a lot of things are expected to change next year as well.
NASCAR teases track shake-up for 2027 schedule
During a recent appearance on the Future is Fandom podcast, NASCAR executive Brian Herbst teased that the 2027 schedule will feature something new, signaling yet another bold tweak to keep the product evolving.
“If you think about the last five years, we’ve run a race inside the Coliseum, torn up a football field, raced inside the LA Coliseum, talked earlier about the first international event that we ran in Mexico City since 1958, and run our first street course ever in Chicago in 2023. We’ll have another new bell and whistle, I’m sure, in 2027.”
After years of criticism and stagnation, NASCAR has been actively reinventing itself since 2021. And while nothing is confirmed yet, speculation is already swirling, especially around a potential shift of the Clash event.
A move away from Bowman Gray Stadium, possibly back to Daytona, could be the kind of headline change Herbst was alluding to. For now, though, it remains firmly in rumor territory.
