Navy SEALs, 23XI Racing forge bond ahead of Naval Base Coronado debut

Posted on June 18, 2026June 18, 2026 by Mike Hembree

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Sunday’s Anduril 250 Race the Base will be contested on a 3.4-mile layout, the fifth-longest track in the history of NASCAR’s top level.

While notable, that isn’t the reason this race weekend has been circled on many Cup teams’ calendars since the beginning of the year.

The race — and the companion NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series events on Friday and Saturday — will be run on one of the most unusual courses in stock-car racing history. NASCAR has built a winding 3.4-mile course around and through Naval Base Coronado, an active military facility in San Diego, California. It’s more than a bit odd for heavy stock cars to be running side-by-side with an aircraft carrier and other heavy-duty naval hardware as part of the landscape.

Additionally, the weekend will bring together NASCAR’s best and some of the country’s most highly trained military personnel, from sailors aboard seagoing vessels to members of elite SEAL teams.

And that’s where Damian Jackson and his teammates at 23XI Racing enter the picture.

A former SEAL and later a college football player at Nebraska, Jackson is the jackman for driver Riley Herbst’s team. Regarded as a quiet-but-productive team leader in 23XI’s Star Wars-like Airspeed race shop in Huntersville, Jackson saw the Naval Base Coronado weekend experience as a perfect opportunity to blend two worlds. He put team officials in touch with members of the Navy SEAL Foundation. Discussions through the various chains of command led to one active-duty SEAL and several former SEALs visiting the shop recently for two days of activities, with the Navy SEAL Foundation also set for involvement with 23XI over the race weekend.

The race at the base will be an unusual highlight for Jackson and others who have worn or are wearing Navy colors.

Jackson has been a supporter of the foundation, which supports SEALs, former SEALs and family members of the Navy community, since leaving the Navy.

“The SEAL Foundation helps families (of SEALs) – like when one of my buddies passed away — a lot, and I wanted to see if we could work a sponsorship for them,” Jackson said. “The foundation helped out his wife tremendously, and they do that for all families that struggle with that. That’s why I wanted them involved. I played a little role in it, but it was really 23XI that put it all together.”

Other 23XI personnel say Jackson understates his influence in virtually everything he does, including his work in helping make the SEAL-23XI relationship a reality.

After six years in the Navy, Jackson worked his way from walk-on to scholarship player for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. After a brief flirtation with pro football, he decided to give NASCAR a shot despite almost no knowledge of the ins and outs of working pit road for a team.

A giant of a man, Jackson turned heads when he walked into 23XI for tryouts, but muscles and size don’t necessarily mean success in the high-intensity world of pit stops, just as special skills and dedication fuel the SEALs, recognized as one of the best military units in the world.

“The day that he came over and worked out, it was different from what other people did,” said Jake Lind, 23XI assistant pit crew coach. “Instead of starting to do things immediately, he kind of stepped back and studied it. That’s where he started. It was a different approach. I know he tries to give the coaches the credit for learning so quickly, but it was his work ethic.

“We showed him what to do, but it’s him being here seven days a week and working – that’s what got him where he is now. His work ethic. He’s very, very quiet, but he shows up and outworks everybody. He raises the level just by being here. I think it’s his determination that failure is not an option.”

Head pit crew coach Jon Carvin said Jackson, in only a year and a half at 23XI, has spread his approach to getting things done across the team’s systems.

“The effort level and the attention to detail is what you hope you can instill into your players, and it’s really nice and refreshing when one of your players already has all of that built into his beliefs and core structure,” he said. “You can’t possibly be around him and not raise your game because you’re going to be made to look so poor compared to what he is and what he does.

“He leaves no doubt that he cares and he wants to do well and wants others to do well, too. His contact with the Navy SEAL Foundation and getting that ball rolling and trying to do things that he knows are helping and supporting other people — he does a great job with that.”

Lind and Carvin said the sessions involving the SEALs and 23XI personnel at the shop benefited both entities as they shared approaches to operations.

“When you look at the SEAL teams, you’re looking at the most elite military unit in the world,” said Geoff Leard, the foundation’s director of athletic events and partnerships and among those who visited 23XI. “At the shop, we were blown away from the leadership all the way down to probably the lowest guy on the totem pole. How the team works there – the camaraderie, everything replicates exactly what a SEAL team is.”

At least for public consumption, Jackson downplays the San Diego race weekend. “It’s another race at another place,” he said. “Just because it’s in San Diego, it doesn’t mean we need to start freaking out.”

It’s difficult to imagine, though, that the 23XI contingent, now well-versed in the SEAL approach to life and work, and competing in a dramatically different environment, won’t see this one as beyond special.

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

Sometimes it takes time to do something right.

That was the case for Jon McKennedy, who has spent the last two years working toward a full-time return to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

McKennedy won the 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship in his most recent full season with the series while driving for team owner Tim Lepine. The plan was for McKennedy to try and defend his championship in 2023, but things fell apart, and McKennedy parted ways with Lepine’s team after just six races.

Since then, the driver from Chelmsford, Massachusetts has worked tirelessly to build his own program for a return to the Modified Tour. This year, all the pieces came together to make that a reality.

“I had to start obviously from the beginning,” McKennedy said. “It took having the right people behind me as far as crew guys to do the Tour and do it right. I needed some good guys for pit stops, and I needed some good sponsorship partners to make this happen.

“I was very fortunate the last year or two to get a bunch of people on board to help me with this. I’ve got a good group of guys. It was all kind able to come together, and I thought this year was the right time to do it.”

Entering Saturday’s Thunder in the Mountains 200 at White Mountain Motorsports Park (8 p.m. ET on FloRacing), McKennedy’s return to full-time Modified Tour competition has gotten off to a solid start.

Jon McKennedy has won twice through the first six Modified Tour races of the year. It’s the first time he has won multiple races in a single season. (Photo: Andrew Stein/NASCAR)

Through the first six races of the season, McKennedy has earned wins at Seekonk Speedway and Oxford Plains Speedway. He’s finished outside the top 10 just once. Those results have helped McKennedy climb to third in the series standings, nine points behind championship leader Stephen Kopcik.

McKennedy credits his early success to a few different factors. Chief among them is experience at several of the tracks on the Modified Tour schedule with different regional touring divisions.

That experience was particularly evident at Seekonk and Oxford Plains, where he had not only raced before, but won.

“This is now my second year with the FURY chassis. My guys have established a pretty good notebook now and we have a pretty good understanding of the car,” McKennedy said. “A lot of these tracks that we’ve been racing at like Thompson, Oxford and Seekonk, these are all tracks that I have raced at on and off for the last 10 to 15 years with other open wheel series.

“I’ve just got a lot of laps at those tracks, a lot of experience. I’ve won a bunch at all of them in other divisions. Things are just clicking.”

With two wins through the first six events, McKennedy has already accomplished a new feat by winning multiple Modified Tour events in a single season.

He’s also led more laps than any other driver through the first six races. His five top-10 finishes are tied with Austin Beers and Patrick Emerling for the most through the first six races. He’s also one of four drivers with three top-five finishes through the first six races of the year.

McKennedy will need that kind of consistency if he hopes to stay in the championship fight through the summer months. A win this weekend at White Mountain Motorsports Park would go a long way toward that goal.

“At the end of the day I feel like we legitimately have a chance to run up front and race for the win,” McKennedy said. “It’s previously been a pretty good track for us. I know last year with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour we had a few issues that kind of hindered our race and made it a handful.

“It’s a cool track. Unique, high banks. It’s a track I feel pretty comfortable at, and I feel like I have a pretty good package going into it. I think we have a pretty good chance to run up front and hopefully contend for the win.”

Posted on June 18, 2026June 20, 2026 by Staff Report

As the NASCAR field prepares for battle stations at Naval Base Coronado, a squadron of drivers will tackle the facility in a different — and unique — manner ahead of time in “NASCAR vs. Navy: The San Diego Mini Movie,” a 30-minute special now streaming on Prime Video.

Six NASCAR Cup Series stars, all with call signs — Christopher Bell (Twister), Ryan Blaney (Whiskey), Chase Briscoe (Hoosier), Noah Gragson (Rizz), Carson Hocevar (Hurricane) and Connor Zilisch (Nugget) — will go head-to-head with United States Navy SEALs in a series of elite challenges. Set against the backdrop of San Diego, the showdown celebrates grit, competition and American pride, all while introducing NASCAR to a new audience in thrilling fashion.

“We got some insights and the history of the base and got to tour a lot of neat things,” Blaney said regarding the experience and the upcoming special. “I’ve always found I’ve been really fortunate in my life to visit a lot of different branches of military and to be able to go around the base and see some of the amazing things that they have, a lot of cool aircraft, aircraft carriers, stuff like that. That stuff just kind of geeks me out a little bit, you know? Just getting to talk to all the folks that are on the base, and, you know, the soldiers that are there every single day and show our appreciation of what they do. It’s neat. So, I’m excited for everybody to see that. I think it’s going to turn out well.”

Openness, honesty and a fair bit of laughs will be several themes throughout the mini movie, with drivers getting a taste of the atmosphere ahead of the sport’s inaugural racing event there in just a few weeks’ time.

“It was so much fun, really cool,” Bell said. “I just think that that race is going to be such a cool atmosphere, racing on the Navy base out there, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a very unique experience, and something that’s gonna create really, really cool images, and something that we’re gonna cherish forever.”

MORE: Cup Series schedule | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule | Craftsman Truck Series schedule

All three NASCAR national series will race at the base this weekend, doing battle on the 3.4-mile street-course layout. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will race Friday (7 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will compete Saturday in the United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Cup Series will conclude the weekend’s festivities on Sunday in the Anduril 250 (4 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on June 18, 2026June 18, 2026 by Neil Paine

The past month of NASCAR action has seen the Cup Series pay visits to some of its most familiar locales: Watkins Glen, Dover, Charlotte, Michigan and Pocono. Nashville was the only track in that stretch with fewer than 40 races run in the modern era (since 1972), and even it now has six races under its belt since making its Cup debut in summer 2021.

The last time we saw Cup cars out on a track with five or fewer all-time races was Gateway last September — before that, it was Iowa in August — and the last completely brand-new track to hit the series schedule was Mexico City last June. Given that the hottest driver in NASCAR right now — riding a three-race winning streak — is 45-year-old Denny Hamlin, who’s seen it all in his 22-year stint behind the wheel, perhaps the only way for the field to catch up is to render all of that experience irrelevant.

Enter Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, which will stage its first-ever race on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on Prime Video.

The track is a temporary street course in the mold of Chicago, which was the first street race in Cup Series history when it debuted in 2023, so perhaps drivers can tap into those three races for valuable intel Sunday. But it’s not really the same otherwise: Watching a virtual lap around the circuit, it feels instead like a blend between old CART-era street tracks like Toronto and the runways of the iconic Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland.

So it’s going to be up to NASCAR’s quickest studies to learn how to handle this track in stock cars, and fast.

Some drivers have excelled more than others in their first-ever encounter with a track. According to either Adjusted Points+ index or Driver Rating — take your pick — the best modern-era Cup driver in his career debut at a particular circuit was Tony Stewart, whose finishes were nearly twice as good as the Cup average and had a 94.7 average rating at tracks he had never seen before at the highest level of stock-car racing.

(Would we expect anything less from a three-time Cup champ who also won an IndyCar title, and has proven he can drive anything from Daytona to dirt tracks to dragsters?)

Among active Cup names, the best stats belong to Chase Elliott, who (among other figures) is tied with Jeff Gordon and Shane van Gisbergen — more on that guy in a bit — for the most wins ever on tracks he was debuting on at the time, at three. Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Jimmie Johnson (technically active in ‘26) also stand out in this regard, although Hamlin’s first experiences with most tracks are getting pretty far back in the rearview mirror by now. (Sorry, Denny!)

It’s one thing to hop in the car during your first trip to a track and do well — at least some of your teammates, or your crew chief, may have a notebook or setup tip that helps ease your adjustment. But what about when nobody knows what they’re doing, and everyone has to figure it out on the fly?

Here are the best modern-era drivers at races where at least 75% of the field was making their first-ever career start at a track/configuration, with a minimum of five races under that circumstance:

Chase Elliott again shows up as shining brightest when a track has either never been run before in NASCAR history, or at least never in recent history. He is one of only four drivers — joining Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and Ricky Rudd — with finishes at least 100% better than Cup average under those circumstances, and that quartet is the only group that carries a triple-digit Driver Rating there as well. Other active drivers on both lists that you can plop down at a totally unfamiliar track and get great performances anyway include Joey Logano, William Byron and Kyle Larson.

That type of situation has become more and more relevant in the 2020s, as NASCAR has added a bunch of new tracks, either making their all-time debut (Iowa, San Diego, etc.), returning to the calendar after a long hiatus (North Wilkesboro), or even debuting a new configuration (Atlanta after its repave). That differs from the previous era: While the series also added a number of new sites from the mid-1980s into the 2000s, between Chicagoland/Kansas making their debuts in 2001 and the Charlotte Roval joining the schedule in 2018, only one new track — Kentucky in 2011 — was added to the docket.

Naval Base Coronado will only add to that new tradition. And the main driver to watch is one we’ve only briefly mentioned, because he didn’t have a large enough sample to appear on the rankings. But what a sample it has been.

I’m referring, of course, to van Gisbergen, perhaps the ultimate new-track savant when it comes to a brand-new road course. Like most things involving left- and right-hand turns, SVG absolutely dominates the statistical lists for drivers with a minimum of two starts in those situations:

Now, of course, SVG is the greatest road-racer in series history anyway, so it may not seem all that surprising that he dominates any list of road-course prowess. But van Gisbergen’s overall career road course performance rates are “only” a 291 Adjusted Points+ and 123.5 Driver Rating. His performances at Chicago — winning in his Cup debut, the very race that began the legend of SVG — and Mexico City — where he won by a stunning 16.567 seconds — were extra-dominant even by his usual road-racing standards.

And that’s bad news for the other 38 drivers in the field this Sunday. You don’t really want to run up against van Gisbergen at any road course, even the ones like Sonoma or Watkins Glen, where you and he both have full notebooks (and he just executes better with the help of his heel-toe footwork). But at a new track where you have to both learn and drive as him?

Good luck.

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Staff Report

NASCAR IMPACT teamed with the San Diego Street Race to give 20 youth from the military-affiliated Boys & Girls Club at Naval Base Coronado a firsthand look at what it takes to bring a NASCAR race to life.

On June 13, the group toured the San Diego Street Race site, getting an up-close view of the track build, grandstands and hospitality structures. Along the way, they learned how the event’s design process comes together, with NASCAR Design & Development leaders walking participants through the STEM concepts behind the build – from engineering and infrastructure planning to the technology that powers a major motorsports event. Participants saw both completed sections of the course and areas still under construction, offering a rare look at the makings of this historic street.

The day began with a welcome and program kickoff alongside NASCAR leadership, followed by the behind-the-scenes tour and lunch in the Operations Compound. Amy Lupo, President of the San Diego Street Race, joined the group. Lupo and her team have been longtime community advocates, and that commitment will be reflected in programming woven throughout the entire race weekend.

“Community has always been at the heart of what we’re building here in San Diego. Getting to share that with the Boys & Girls Club and letting these kids see the race from the inside out—that’s what this event is all about for us,” said Lupo.

The group will return to Naval Base Coronado on Saturday, June 20, when they will attend the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race — a chance to see the venue they toured come to life on race day.

The activation is part of NASCAR IMPACT’s ongoing work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to connect young people with the sport, and the career paths it supports. By pairing the tour with NASCAR Design & Development, the program aimed to inspire interest in STEM-related careers through hands-on exposure to the people and processes behind a NASCAR weekend.

The experience also reflects NASCAR’s continued commitment to military-affiliated families, connecting the Naval Base Coronado community with the sport through an event taking place in their own backyard. For the San Diego Street Race team, the day was another example of community programming built into the fabric of the event which is a priority Lupo and her team have championed since the race’s inception.

Posted on June 17, 2026June 17, 2026 by Staff Report

It’s time for NASCAR to make history! The Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series head to Naval Base Coronado in San Diego this weekend for an all-timer of a tripleheader weekend. See how cars will roll off for qualifying sessions in all three series ahead of the race-day festivities.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Group qualifying will occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday (Prime Video). Practice is Friday at 5 p.m. ET (Prime Video).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC	GROUP
1	91	* Kevin Magnussen	58.7	1
2	84	* Jimmie Johnson	42.5	1
3	67	* Corey Heim(i)	39.8	1
4	4	Noah Gragson	33.8	1
5	38	Zane Smith	33.1	1
6	21	Josh Berry	32.7	1
7	10	Ty Dillon	32.3	1
8	51	Cody Ware	31.8	1
9	6	Brad Keselowski	31.7	1
10	22	Joey Logano	29.5	1
11	48	Alex Bowman	27.9	1
12	41	Cole Custer	27.0	1
13	88	Connor Zilisch #	26.6	1
14	3	Austin Dillon	26.2	1
15	97	Shane van Gisbergen	25.9	1
16	60	Ryan Preece	25.0	1
17	16	AJ Allmendinger	21.7	1
18	20	Christopher Bell	21.2	1
19	34	Todd Gilliland	20.8	1
20	33	Austin Hill(i)	20.7	1
21	35	Riley Herbst	19.6	2
22	23	Bubba Wallace	18.6	2
23	71	Michael McDowell	17.9	2
24	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	17.1	2
25	77	Carson Hocevar	16.7	2
26	2	Austin Cindric	14.6	2
27	1	Ross Chastain	12.5	2
28	19	Chase Briscoe	12.0	2
29	7	Daniel Suárez	11.5	2
30	42	John Hunter Nemechek	10.6	2
31	9	Chase Elliott	8.9	2
32	43	Erik Jones	8.7	2
33	12	Ryan Blaney	7.9	2
34	54	Ty Gibbs	7.8	2
35	17	Chris Buescher	7.0	2
36	24	William Byron	5.4	2
37	5	Kyle Larson	5.3	2
38	45	Tyler Reddick	1.7	2
39	11	Denny Hamlin	1.3	2

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Group qualifying will occur at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday (The CW). Practice is Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET (The CW App).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC	GROUP
1	50	Preston Pardus	41.6	1
2	55	Brad Perez	36.0	1
3	42	Baltazar Leguizamón	34.7	1
4	53	Joey Gase	34.3	1
5	92	Leland Honeyman Jr.(i)	32.7	1
6	28	Kyle Sieg	31.7	1
7	35	Dawson Cram	31.2	1
8	91	Jesse Iwuji	29.4	1
9	45	Lavar Scott #	29.3	1
10	17	Corey Day	28.1	1
11	2	Jesse Love	27.1	1
12	02	Ryan Ellis	26.7	1
13	27	Jeb Burton	26.2	1
14	48	Patrick Staropoli #	25.3	1
15	87	Austin Green	24.2	1
16	07	Josh Bilicki	24.1	1
17	39	Ryan Sieg	22.7	1
18	31	Blaine Perkins	20.9	1
19	18	William Sawalich	18.6	1
20	44	Brennan Poole	18.0	2
21	51	Jeremy Clements	17.5	2
22	8	Sammy Smith	16.3	2
23	54	Taylor Gray	16.1	2
24	0	Alex Labbe	15.9	2
25	24	Harrison Burton	14.9	2
26	26	Dean Thompson	14.8	2
27	99	Parker Retzlaff	14.1	2
28	21	Austin Hill	12.5	2
29	96	Anthony Alfredo	10.2	2
30	32	Andrew Patterson	10.0	2
31	20	Brandon Jones	7.7	2
32	1	Carson Kvapil	7.2	2
33	41	Sam Mayer	6.1	2
34	00	Sheldon Creed	5.3	2
35	19	Brent Crews #	3.8	2
36	88	Rajah Caruth	2.7	2
37	7	Justin Allgaier	1.0	2

Craftsman Truck Series
Group qualifying will occur at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, with practices earlier in the day at Noon ET and 1 p.m. ET (FS2).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC	GROUP
1	75	Parker Kligerman	41.9	1
2	76	Nathan Nicholson	33.4	1
3	26	Dawson Sutton	33.0	1
4	13	Cole Butcher #	31.8	1
5	22	Austin Varco	31.2	1
6	81	Kris Wright	31.0	1
7	2	Jackson Lee	28.1	1
8	88	Ty Majeski	28.1	1
9	10	Corey LaJoie	26.0	1
10	16	Justin Haley	25.9	1
11	33	Frankie Muniz	25.1	1
12	91	Christian Eckes	24.5	1
13	14	Mini Tyrrell #	22.1	1
14	20	Brendan Gaughan	21.9	1
15	5	Adam Andretti	21.6	1
16	52	Stewart Friesen	20.5	1
17	44	Andrés Pérez	19.9	1
18	15	Tanner Gray	19.5	1
19	25	Jamie McMurray	18.4	2
20	99	Ben Rhodes	18.0	2
21	12	Brenden Queen #	15.8	2
22	45	Landen Lewis	14.3	2
23	19	Daniel Hemric	13.3	2
24	9	Grant Enfinger	13.1	2
25	42	Tyler Reif	12.4	2
26	18	Tyler Ankrum	10.9	2
27	98	Jake Garcia	10.8	2
28	17	Gio Ruggiero	10.2	2
29	62	Kaz Grala	7.2	2
30	7	Connor Mosack	6.8	2
31	38	Chandler Smith	5.0	2
32	77	Justin Marks	4.8	2
33	34	Layne Riggs	3.1	2
34	11	Kaden Honeycutt	2.0	2
35	1	Jimmie Johnson(i)	1.6	2

* Required to qualify on time
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points

Posted on June 17, 2026June 17, 2026 by Staff Report

Jesse Love will join Wood Brothers Racing to drive its historic No. 21 Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2027, the team announced Wednesday.

Love is the 2025 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion and still competes full-time in that series. With seven Cup starts on his resume, the 21-year-old will make the full-time jump to NASCAR’s highest level next season.

MORE: Cup standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings

“Words can’t describe what it means to me to realize this dream I’ve had for as long as I can remember,” Love shared in a social media post. “I am so grateful to every single person who has had a hand in my journey from the time I was 5 years old to now. This is for those people who have pushed me and helped me. Thank you to the Wood Brothers, Team Penske, and Ford for their belief in me starting in 2027.”

Love will replace Josh Berry in the No. 21 car. Berry, a winner in March 2025 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, announced in a Zoom on June 10 he would not return to Wood Brothers Racing after this season.

The No. 21 entry from Wood Brothers is iconic, featuring motorsports greats like David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, Neil Bonnett and Dale Jarrett as drivers who have helped the team amass 101 wins across its many decades in the sport. With assistance from Team Penske, which has a long-standing alliance with the Wood Brothers team, Love will have his chance to add his name to the long list of winners beginning next season.

“Driving the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing is truly an honor,” Love said in a release. “This team has played such an important role in NASCAR history, and the drivers who have sat behind the wheel of this car are some of the greatest our sport has ever seen. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone at Wood Brothers Racing, Team Penske and Ford Racing for believing in me – I’m excited to get to work, continue learning from the people around me and compete at the highest level.”

“Jesse has accomplished a lot at a young age,” Jon Wood, president of Wood Brothers Racing, said in a release. “He’s demonstrated the ability to win races, compete for championships and handle the expectations that come with racing at a high level. We’re looking forward to giving him the opportunity to take the next step in his career with the No. 21 team.”

A native of Menlo Park, California, Love earned the ARCA Menards Series West championship in 2020 at age 16 and again in 2021 before earning the national ARCA championship in 2023. Love has competed full-time in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Richard Childress Racing since the beginning of 2024, earning the Rookie of the Year title that season before claiming the title last season. Love has made seven Cup Series starts for RCR as well, earning a best finish of 24th in the 2025 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Love currently sits second in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings, trailing series leader Justin Allgaier by 250 points.

“Richard Childress Racing is appreciative of Jesse Love’s contributions during his three seasons with our organization and wishes him nothing but success in the future,” a statement from RCR read on X. “Jesse is a talented racer, and we are proud to have played a role in his development into a NASCAR champion. All parties remain aligned and committed to defending the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in 2026.

Additional details regarding the No. 21 team’s plans for the 2027 Cup Series season will be announced at a later date, the team stated.

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Zack Albert

NASCAR’s first visit to Naval Base Coronado in San Diego comes during a nationwide celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, marking a historic tie-in between stock-car racing and the American military.

This weekend’s NASCAR tripleheader strengthens the already powerful connections between sports and the armed forces, which have hosted college and professional events in tandem for years. To prepare for another unique partnership, let’s review a selection of previous sports and military crossovers, including one from the past in NASCAR’s biggest race.

U.S. military cars in the 1991 Daytona 500

With the United States in the grips of Operation Desert Storm, five teams paid tribute to the five branches of the military with special paint schemes in the “Great American Race” in 1991. With sponsorship bills offset by series sponsor RJ Reynolds, the cars were driven by Mickey Gibbs (No. 24 Air Force), Greg Sacks (No. 18 Navy), Alan Kulwicki (No. 7 Army), Buddy Baker (No. 88 Marines) and Dave Marcis (No. 71 Coast Guard).

NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images

Sacks, whose father was a radio operator in the United States Navy during World War II, prompted the campaign with a call to Reynolds’ sports marketing executives. “I’ve been watching the reports on television every night, and I saw how the troops reacted to the Super Bowl,” Sacks said before the 1991 event. “Now, I’m going to be part of a sporting event that I consider just as big as the Super Bowl, and those troops are going to know that we’re thinking about them.”

All five cars qualified for the race, and Kulwicki managed the best finish — eighth in his desert-camouflage No. 7 Ford.

MORE: A history of patriotic paint schemes | Watch: 1991 Daytona 500

Armed Forces Classic

College basketball broke new ground in 2012 with the first Armed Forces Classic, pitting Connecticut against Michigan State in front of 3,288 spectators at Rammstein Air Base in Germany. A total of nine men’s basketball games were held under the Armed Forces Classic banner, most recently in 2022 at the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego. The event was revived last year with the first women’s classic, with UConn topping Louisville in Annapolis, Maryland.

Major League Baseball at Fort Bragg

When the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves locked horns for a midsummer tilt in 2016 outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina, it marked the first regular-season pro sports event held on an active military base. The Marlins prevailed 5-2 on the eve of Independence Day, with 12,582 taking in the sights from a temporary stadium built on a defunct golf course.

Carrier Classic

A series of college hoops games in 2011 and 2012 were held on aircraft carriers, with North Carolina and Michigan State tipping off for the first edition in front of 8,111 on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson. (The USS Carl Vinson will be present at Naval Base Coronado for the tripleheader race weekend.) The Tar Heels held on for a 67-55 victory, and the USS Yorktown and Midway joined in as host locations for Carrier Classic events the next year.

Army/Navy Game

Though not held on a military site, one of college football’s most revered and longest-running rivalries needs its own special mention alongside other armed forces sports traditions. Army’s Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen have met 126 times since their first matchup in 1890, with the most games hosted at a neutral site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Navy carries a two-game winning streak into this year’s annual showdown, which is scheduled Dec. 12 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

WWE Tribute to the Troops

Professional wrestling cards stemmed from a collaboration between WWE and Armed Forces Entertainment, which hosted a series of events on or near military installations both stateside and abroad. The first seven episodes (2003-2009) were held either in Iraq or Afghanistan, before a move in 2010 to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

UFL at Fort Hood

The United Football League staged the first pro football game on an active U.S. military base earlier this year, with the Orlando Storm defeating the Dallas Renegades 31-24 in the “Hats off to Heroes” event on May 15 at Fort Hood’s Phantom Warrior Stadium. Attendance was restricted to military personnel, their families and those with base access, with free admission.

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Nate Ryan

The pressure was on to reach the West Coast when the green flag for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway was moved two hours ahead to 1 p.m. ET.

On the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, Mike Forde, NASCAR vice president of racing communications, said the call was made Saturday morning to start earlier because of a significant chance of rain at 5 p.m. ET.

“With a 3 p.m. start time, you’re looking at maybe getting through Stage 2,” Forde said. “The average time of the race is about three hours, so if we moved it up only an hour, we’re probably not going to get in all 160 laps.”

The race finished before a torrential downpour with lightning later that afternoon.

Because of the logistics to move the broadcast compound and other setup equipment to Naval Base Coronado, Forde said the contingency plan was 8 a.m. ET start if the Pocono race had been postponed to Monday.

“We really, really needed to get that race in on Sunday,” Forde said. “There were a lot of things working against us if we had a rain situation. So I think everyone was pretty eager and had a lot of angst to get that race going by any means possible, and everyone worked together.

“I want to give a shoutout to Nick Igdalsky and Ben May, the CEO and president of Pocono Raceway. They probably had the most to lose by moving that race up. They had a sold-out crowd, a sold-out infield, and throwing that curveball to fans with a little more than 24 hours’ notice was a big ask, and they really were great partners. So everything worked out beautifully.”

The decision was also made easier because the broadcast was on a streaming platform that wasn’t beholden to the demands of juggling a network schedule.

“It is a pretty simple yes,” Forde said. “But the later you go, and the closer into primetime you go, the better for ratings. And so they were cognizant that moving two hours earlier was going to probably hurt their ratings, but I think they realized what we’re up against, too. So I think Prime looked at the big picture there and were, as usual, great partners and agreed to the move up.”

Other topics covered by Forde and senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis during the 58th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR: