6 burning questions about this weekend's NASCAR races at Coronado Naval Base, San Diego

NASCAR heading to a brand new track is never short of fascinating. This weekend's Coronado Naval Base circuit only existed as a concept until days ago when the track was finally set up, and now we're just hours away from engines roaring around it.

Of course, a brand new event raises some questions. Can fans attend? (Yes). Who's driving? (These guys). Will anyone drive off the track and into the ocean? (Hopefully not!)

We also have some questions of our own, and some possible answers. The one you won't find on here is 'who will win?' because...come on. Someone's going home from San Diego with a signed rugby ball that's been belted into the stands.

Without further ado...

Can NASCAR make cautions work at a 3.4-mile track?

The thing about a 3.4-mile track is that it's really long. The Coronado track is actually the third longest in NASCAR history, and at a caution car speed limit of 45mph, a single caution lap will take nearly five minutes.

That means that, allowing time for NASCAR to clear the incident and open pit road, the time for drivers to cycle through the pits, then to get around to the restart spot afterward, fans fear that they could be watching extended periods of running under yellow.

The good news is that officials are attempting to streamline the process – including fast-tracking the free pass and wave-around rules. If it works (and there's no reason to believe it shouldn't), so much the better.

Fans, almost universally sick of the amount of caution running in the sport, might even start asking why cautions at other tracks aren't streamlined in the same way.

Will Project 91 stun the sport again?

The idea of Project 91 absolutely rules. Get some names from other racing series worldwide to have a crack at NASCAR? Expand interest in the sport and see how some storied racers stack up? Absolutely!

Former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen, who made 185 starts in the open-wheel series, will step into a Cup Series car for the very first time in practice on Saturday, ahead of his race debut on Sunday.

Will he follow in the footsteps of Project 91 alum Shane van Gisbergen and win on debut?

Ah. No. The story's very cool, but Magnussen is a career open-wheel racer and current hypercar driver who's never sat in a Cup car in his life. He has precisely zero of the advantages that former Supercars champ SVG had, except 'experience turning right'. Also, whisper it quietly, he wasn't exactly a star in F1. This is more like sending Cole Custer to run an F1 race than it is like Van Gisbergen coming to NASCAR.

Hopefully he'll do better than Helio Castroneves did at Daytona last year, at least.

Can Connor Zilisch get his first Cup top-10?

Yes. In fact, he should get his first top-10. He missed out at COTA after being wrecked twice (his 14th place is still his best of the season) while looking like the fastest car on the track, and he was running second inside the last ten laps at Watkins Glen when his tire went down.

Zilisch has been powerfully unlucky at road courses this year. Barring some more bad luck, he should finally put it all together this Sunday.

Do the old guys still have it?

NASCAR's rule that no full-time driver can do double or triple duty this weekend (Austin Hill, full-time in the O'Reilly Series and filling the No. 33 seat for RCR, is an understandable exception) has left the door open for some very fun entries this week.

Jimmie Johnson (age 50) will run in Cup and Trucks, with Jamie McMurray (50), Spire Motorsports owner Justin Marks (45), and Brendan Gaughan (50) all joining him in Friday night's Truck Series race.

So...do the old guys still have it? We'll find out.

If Shane van Gisbergen is 15 seconds up the road and about to win at an active Naval Base, will there be military countermeasures deployed to ensure an American winner?

Probably not...but would you be surprised if there was a meeting about it?

None of the O'Reilly Series field has won on a road course since 2024...so who's favorite?

It's true, the last seven road course race wins in the Xfinity/O'Reilly Series have been shared between Trackhouse's current Cup Series stable, with only Daniel Suarez (Mexico City) stopping Zilisch and Van Gisbergen sweeping all of the 2025 road races and making that run nine in a row.

As mentioned above though, none of those drivers will be in this weekend's O'Reilly race. That opens things up entirely for a fight at the front.

Sam Mayer was the last driver in Saturday's field to take a road course win in the series, but he's only the second favorite with the oddsmakers – with 18-year-old phenom Brent Crews a heavy (although not SVG-level heavy) favorite to take the win.

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