2026 NAVY 250 Betting Race Picks

Date/Time: Friday June 19th, 2026. 7:00PM (EST)
Where: San Diego Naval Base Coronado
TV: Prime

Last weekend, the UFC held a historic event at the White House to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. This weekend, NASCAR will follow suit with their own celebration with a full weekend of racing at the San Diego Naval Base Coronado. This weekend’s triple header will be the first time in history that NASCAR competed on an active military base. The temporary 3.4 mile circuit has been built directly on the tarmacs, runways, and aprons of the Naval Base Coronado which means the same surface that touches some of the NAVY’s most prestigious aircraft will also be the surface that drivers compete on throughout the weekend. This weekend’s racing celebration will kick off Friday afternoon when the Craftsman Truck Series takes the green flag for the NAVY 250 in what promises to be another historic event!

One of the most interesting tidbits surrounding this weekend’s race festivities in San Diego is that NASCAR issued a point declaration restriction in preparation for this weekend’s races. Essentially, the rules only allow drivers to compete in the series in which they have declared drivers points. Therefore, this rule does not allow for Cup Series drivers to step-down to the lower series for a part-time start like we see most weeks throughout the season. As a result, each race will be absent of Cup Series’ talent which is usually the heavy favorites in the lower series’ each week. Instead of Cup Series participation on Friday, the 250 will feature many non-traditional names on the entry list including 7-time Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson who is coming out of retirement for this historic event. Along with Johnson, former Cup Series star Jamie McMurray, TrackHouse Racing owner and former driver Justin Marks, racing family royalty Adam Andretti, and others will all be in action on Friday!

From a betting perspective, this event will be relatively difficult to handicap simply based on the variables pertaining to the drivers that are competing and the fact that this circuit is brand new on the racing scene. While drivers have attempted to prepare for this 3.4 mile layout on the sims and virtual settings, the truth is that nobody will make a single lap on this circuit until race day on Friday. Additionally, I would add the important fact that this 16 turn layout known as the Qualcomm Circuit appears to be an absolute beast! The layout features numerous 90 degree turns, which include both right and left turns. There are parts of the course that have “S” shaped turns like we see in Sonoma, there is a chicane like we see at the ROVAL, and there are numerous heavy braking zones which are notorious with this style of racing. Therefore, there are a lot of areas of the circuit where mistakes can happen and that is reason to be very cautious from a betting perspective!

Handicapping San Diego

Despite the fact that I think this weekend’s races will be difficult to handicap, I do think it will get easier to handicap through each touring series over the weekend. This circuit challenges every road course skill set imaginable which means we can rely heavily on road course performance metrics in each touring series. Unfortunately, the Truck Series competes less than anyone on the road courses which makes things a little more difficult for Friday specifically. With that being said, we will still look-back at prior performances on the road courses in the Truck Series, compare overall skill sets, and ultimately even patiently await practice speeds on Friday in order to determine the drivers that are in the best position to go after a victory. At this point, we don’t have any idea how much time drivers have practiced on the sims and how much of that speed will transition into Friday’s race. However once practice begins on Friday, it will become evident very quickly the drivers that are best prepared to tackle this monster layout!

Betting Targets

I was relatively surprised to see the fact that Layne Riggs was the outright betting favorite going into tomorrow’s on-track activities. Personally, I have never thought of Riggs as a “road course” driver. Riggs is possibly the best short track talent in the field and while some of those skills are comparable; road course racing is still a different animal. However, Riggs has been rock solid at the road courses and is definitely capable of winning on Friday. With that being said, I am not interested in betting on Riggs as the outright favorite. Instead, I believe that drivers like Ty Majeski and Kaden Honeycutt are the better targets among the favorites. Honeycutt has been one of the fastest drivers in the field on a weekly basis. Additionally, Honeycutt also got his first win at Watkins Glen which was the last Truck Series’ race at a road course venue. Meanwhile, Ty Majeski has twice the value as Honeycutt and has produced the highest average driver rating (99.5) of any drivers in the series over the last 4 races at road course venues. As a result, I have Honeycutt and Majeski as top targets this week among the favorites.

As we look deeper into the field, Gio Ruggerio, Connor Mosack, and Landen Lewis are some young talents that have looked good at the road courses in their careers. I think those drivers have a much higher likelihood of breaking through to compete for a victory as compared to some of the retired veterans like Johnson, McMurray, Marks, and Andretti who just have not had enough seat time to warrant legitimate betting consideration. I will say that I expect Johnson to run relatively well and he may surprise some people. If we look even deeper into the field, I have Daniel Hemric and Kaz Grala identified as the drivers that are severely underrated and may be worth betting consideration in all formats. Hemric has quietly been one of the best road course drivers in the Truck Series and I will target him heavily in H2H/prop bet formats. Grala is a bit riskier option but he is stepping into quality equipment this week which is something he rarely gets the opportunity to do. For that reason, I think Grala is worth a potential look as a flier in prop and fantasy style formats.

2026 NAVY 250 Race Picks

*FINAL*

Ty Majeski +850 (.5 unit)
Chandler Smith +1200 (.5 unit)
Daniel Hemric +3500 (.5 unit)

H2H Match-Ups and Props

Tyler Ankrum -110 over Ben Rhodes (2 units)
Ty Majeski +150 finishes Top 5 (1 unit)
Daniel Hemric +600 finishes Top 5 (.5 unit)
Jimmie Johnson +800 finishes Top 5 (.5 unit)

Two Team Parlay

Kaden Honeycutt +400 wins NAVY 250
Shane Van Gisbergen -160 wins Anduril 250
Risking 1 unit to win: +700