Light-hearted touch boosts NASCAR promo video for Coronado race

NASCAR announced its new San Diego event with a traditional press release and then a three-minute promotional video.

“Project: Race the Base” (embedded below) can be found on NASCAR’s official social media channels. On the official NASCAR YouTube page it’s titled, “Top Secret: NASCAR’s Next Mission Starts Now.” Both titles drive home the point of the unique race tying into the military base.

And the piece does its job of showcasing a handful of NASCAR drivers, the United States Navy, and views of San Diego. It might be one of the most impressive videos NASCAR has released, and serves as the ultimate hype video for a brand new, one-of-a-kind event.

Chase Elliott is the first driver to appear in the video. He is listed as Chase “Peaches” Elliott. In fact, all of the drivers who appeared were given nicknames, such as those Navy Seals are given – Joey “Zamboni” Logano, Carson “Hot Shot” Hocevar, Noah “Rizz” Gragson, Chase “Hoosier” Briscoe and William “Flame” Byron.

There are also plenty of zingers thrown during the video as the drivers are put through the different missions by the Navy Seals to show they are worthy of running a race on the naval base.

“Sabrina Carpenter is not going to like that,” Gragson says to Byron. The reference being to online rumors that Byron was trying to land a date with the pop singer. (And for the record, it is not true.)

“Why did we not bring SVG,” Hocevar says at one point when the drivers are trying to plan the fastest way around the street course while evading the naval security team.

The video hits a peak when the drivers take production vehicles and start racing around the runaways while being chased by law enforcement. However, there is no official course layout from NASCAR for the event. It’ll be unveiled in the fall.

Naval Base Coronado will be the first time NASCAR has competed on an active military base. It will be the second street course race for the Cup Series, which heads to San Diego after spending the last three years in Chicago. The Cup Series event will be the culmination of the weekend where all three series will compete at the course.