2026 S3 Build

NASCAR’s partnership with iRacing to push the boundaries of track design brought the sport back to Southern California for 2026, with Naval Base Coronado chosen as the host for the sport’s newest street race. Previously home to the Coronado Speed Festival, which primarily hosted vintage racing from 1997 to 2016, the layout joins the Chicago Street Course as the second street circuit to host the Cup Series in the sport’s modern era.

The 16-turn Qualcomm Circuit doubles the length of the former Speed Festival circuit, extending for a total of 3.4 miles. The iRacing-designed circuit mixes high-speed straightaways with a handful of tighter turns, including 90-degree bends onto and off Rogers Road in Turns 2 and 3 and four sets of chicanes. Its highest-speed straightaways include the stretch after Carrier Corner (Turn 5) and the run up to the final left-hander bringing drivers back to the finish line.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is one of the classic North American road-racing circuits. A serpentine ribbon of pavement winding through the hills of Northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, Laguna Seca is the site of one of the most unique and famous corners in motorsport, The Corkscrew. Approached from a long, fast uphill run, the Corkscrew is a blind, plunging lefthander that is more akin to a ski slope than a piece of race track.

Originally built by the Army Corps of Engineers on a corner of what was then Fort Ord, Laguna Seca opened in 1957 and in its half-century of operation has been host to every significant North American road-racing series, from the legendary Can-Am to the Trans-Am, IMSA Camel GT and CART Indy cars. Today, Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca hosts INDYCAR, IMSA, MotoAmerica, Racing America, and the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. For 2026, iRacing has completely rescanned and rebuilt Laguna Seca from the ground up.