NASCAR Coming to San Diego

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Cliff Albert. NASCAR is coming to San Diego next
year on Father's Day weekend in June twenty twenty six.
This week, NASCAR driver Ross Chastain and visited naval based Coronado,
where the race will take place, for a preview and
a chance to meet with sailors as the base celebrates
the Navies two hundred and fiftieth birthday this weekend.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I think we do a pretty good job with our
patriotism at all of our races, if I'm being honest,
But this is going to be next level, and I
think that for me, I'm a small part. I'm one
of the drivers hopefully that gets to strap in on
that Sunday afternoon and go race. And for so many
of our military men and women that maybe have ever

(00:39):
Cornado has ever touched them, or they've ever touched that
base in some way or some fashion, they're going to
be able to look at that race and point and say,
I've been right there, I've flown there, whatever they've done,
pay service to this country. They're going to be able
to look at that race, and our patriotism is going
to be through the I don't think you're gonna be

(01:00):
able to measure it on that weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well, with Americans love for NASCAR, and of course especially
here in San Diego, we're a military town. We're proud
of it, and it's going to mean a lot to
have Nascar here. And you couldn't write a better script
on Father's Day weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
That's right. It's hard for me to say this without
kind of laughing at myself, but it is such a
good time to be a driver in NASCAR. Over the
years and over the decades, we've evolved the car. We've
built them safer, stronger, faster, right, everything you want to
do to keep evolving. And we're in our seventh generation.
We call it Gen seven. This car can be raced anywhere.

(01:37):
And that's why you see Chicago be successful. That's why
you see us coming here to the Cornado base is
because we can now this car can do it. It
can stand up to the rough road. This is not
going to be a purpose built racetrack, right, This is
going to be the same roads, maybe with some maintenance
and you know, some upgrades to it, but it's going
to be rough and bumpy, and this car can take that.

(01:59):
The old car couldn't.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, anybody listening to you right now, who may have
never attended or even watched a NASCAR race, They're going
to be surprised, I think by the excitement and the
action and the feeling and the noise and everything else.
There's not too many things that happen as exciting as
a NASCAR race.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, and we're not sorry when we come to town
and we make noise. Okay, we've got over around seven
hundred horse power. We don't get good gas mileage. We
burned through tires and that's the experience of being in
a race. You can smell the rubber burning, you can
smell the exhaust like you can feel the horsepower. And
when we all take off together, you know, in aracing,

(02:40):
the roar from our engines is deafening, and we have
to wear special cups inside of our helmet and ear
earplugs that are molded into our ears to drown out
that noise so it's not painful. That's how loud our
cars are inside. So definitely something you see a lot
of pit stops were constantly refilling with gas, putting new

(03:02):
tires on, and it's going to be a sight to
see if you've never seen it. It's something that you
have to experience one time to ever appreciate it on TV.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, San Diego is really looking forward to it. I imagine
all the NASCAR drivers on the circuit we're going to
be here next year, are also looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah. I can only speak for me, but now that
I've been here, I had no grasp of what we
were getting into. I saw the video, the hype video, right,
I saw it, but seeing it on the screen, just
like I said about watching the sport, until I walked
on the base and went through the checking station and
ate lunch with sailors, that it just changed for me today.

(03:40):
That really was the switch to realize how special this
is going to be. And I think that I'm well,
I know, I'm going to go tell my competitors this
weekend in Las Vegas how cool it is because I
couldn't grasp it just watching it online and now getting
to shake hands with active duty saying and talk to

(04:01):
them about whether they'll be here or whether they'll be
out on deployment next June. You know, they might not
be able to come because they're serving this great country.
And that was powerful to me and it kind of
it puts it in perspective of how much bigger this
all is than they're really just one race, and how
how much we can show off our patriotism and say

(04:23):
thank you by putting on a race. And I think
that Live Sports does such a good job of kind
of taking us all from the realities of the real
world and for a couple hours we can just you know,
root for our favorite driver or against somebody we don't like.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
So well said as a true NASCAR driver, will Ross Chasine,
Thanks so much for taking the time and letting our
listeners know just how exciting this is going to be
and how much you've learned just in this one day
right here in San Diego. Thanks again, and a reminder,
if you need more information about NASCAR in San Diego,
just go to NASCAR san Diego dot com. Clip Albert
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