Last week's races at the San Diego Street Course were a blockbuster hit for NASCAR fans and experts. Now, almost a week later, a renowned army captain wants more naval bases to be added to the NASCAR calendar in the upcoming days.

Dalton Hopkins, one of NASCAR's renowned faces who works with Frontstretch and a US Army Captain, recently shared his thoughts on this. "Naturally, and maybe more biased, I would love to see it on an army base," said Hopkins on the latest episode of The Teardown.

"Of course, I'd love to see it, maybe at like Fort Benning (a naval base in Georgia) where they have Ranger battalions out there, and some of the special forces guys. But at the same time, the Naval Base Coronado, yes, it was very picturesque."

While Naval Base Coronado offered a stunning coastal setting, Fort Benning has a different kind of appeal. The military installation is home to the Army Infantry School and the elite 75th Ranger Regiment.

Its rich heritage and close ties to America's armed forces could make it another compelling destination for NASCAR, if it ever wants to expand its military-base events.

Following this, Mr. Hopkins shed light on how the Naval bases are generally not picturesque, but the one at Coronado was different. He then spoke on how NASCAR wants to capture such markets, which are picturesque in nature, have great fandom, and are located in Southern California.

"And Naval, Army military bases, as in general, are not very picturesque to say the least. In fact, most of the time they're very, very, let's say, forlorn. But the Naval Base Coronado also was in SoCal, right? And that is a market that NASCAR very much wants to capture. And we just haven't been able to do that," Hopkins further added in The Teardown podcast.

The Naval Base Coronado hosted three races last weekend, and it was the first-ever race weekend in San Diego's history. The race garnered over 125,000 fans from all 50 states of the US, and from 17 countries.

The race also saw Red Bull hosting a fanfare event and receiving ample support from the men in uniform. Such was the popularity of the event that the governing body is looking to bring the event back next year.

NASCAR looks to come back to San Diego

After the successful race this season, the governing body is hopeful of bringing the race weekend soon. NASCAR's Chief Operating Officer, Ben Kennedy, has already shared his statement, giving hope to fans around San Diego.

"I hope so,” he said. “It’d be great. It’s a one-year commitment. So we’re focused on this weekend, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of conversations after we come out of San Diego with the Navy and with the military to talk about: ‘Is there a second year? Is there a future here? And if so, what does that look like?’” Kennedy told Sports Business Journal.

Kennedy also spoke about how these races bring in more partners. Outside of Daytona, he said the Chicago and San Diego races sell quicker than anything else on the schedule.

As NASCAR hosted all three national series races here, Layne Riggs emerged as the winner of the Truck Series, while Austin Hill won the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race, and Corey Heim claimed his first win in the Cup Series on Sunday.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason