After years of planning, endless map sessions, simulation laps, track walks, and probably more than a few sleepless nights, NASCAR drivers finally did the one thing everyone had been waiting for on Friday at Naval Air Station North Island at Naval Base Coronado: They raced.No more pace car tours. No more standing at corners pointing and pretending to see braking markers. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series became the first national series to properly christen NASCAR’s new 3.4-mile street course.And immediately began introducing it to the walls.Practice and qualifying turned into something between a motorsports event and a guided tour of concrete impact zones, with roughly a third of the field collecting some sort of damage. Turns 15 and 16 proved especially unforgiving, repeatedly reminding drivers that street circuits do not negotiate.When qualifying ended, Kaden Honeycutt emerged on pole despite scraping the wall on his fastest lap. Alongside him sat Layne Riggs.Which meant the two strongest road course racers in the Truck Series were about to settle things the old-fashioned way.The Coronado course was tough on the machinery.Honeycutt controlled the opening laps but only briefly. By Lap 3, Riggs had arrived.He didn’t just pass Honeycutt, he disappeared.Riggs stretched the advantage to nearly five seconds and swept Stage 1 while everyone else tried to decide whether preserving tires or preserving dignity mattered more. Remarkably, despite the carnage beforehand, the race’s only early caution came on Lap 5 when Dawson Sutton’s Chevrolet stalled exiting Turn 14.While Riggs controlled the front, much of the attention centered on seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.Strategy shuffled the order at the stage break. Honeycutt stayed out while Riggs came to pit road, putting Johnson into second for the restart.Then something happened that felt impossible and familiar at the same time.On Lap 16, Honeycutt locked up entering a corner and Johnson slipped through into the lead.For the first time since Phoenix in 2020, Jimmie Johnson led a NASCAR race. Sadley, the moment didn’t last.Johnson needed service and headed to pit road three laps later, opening the door for Parker Kligerman, who held off Ty Majeski to claim Stage 2.Then the race remembered it was being held on a street course.Chandler Smith appeared to have everything under control with 10 laps remaining and was beginning to pull away until Tyler Ankrum slammed the outside wall exiting Turn 16 with five laps to go, bringing out an eight-minute red flag and setting up a two-lap sprint to the finish.Which, in NASCAR terms, translates loosely to: abandon all expectations.Chaos exploded behind the leaders and pushed the race into overtime.Riggs was stretching fuel. Smith and Honeycutt were operating entirely on determination.Determination turned out to be expensive.Coming out of Turn 2, Honeycutt got into the outside wall. Smith arrived immediately behind him and both spun out of contention.Parker Kligerman (#75), Tyler Reif (#42), and Kris Wright (#81) go three wide during the Coronado race.Suddenly Daniel Hemric had the lead.Then Tyler Reif had the lead.And suddenly a 19-year-old making just his seventh NASCAR start looked ready to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the season.Riggs, meanwhile, kept charging.The race came down to one final braking zone at the chicane.Reif attacked it too aggressively, overshot the entry and had to stop to serve the penalty.Riggs drove through.History secured.NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Navy 250Hemric finished second, followed by Kaz Grala, Landen Lewis and Ty Majeski.Smith was credited with 22nd. Honeycutt finished 23rd. Reif, after coming within one corner of victory, was classified 19th.“Lane Van Riggsbergen came to play today,” Riggs joked afterward. “We’re undefeated on street courses.”Riggs admitted he was nearly out of fuel over the final lap and thought strategy had left his team short of the outright pace to win.“They beat us on strategy,” Riggs said of the frontrunners. “We just didn’t have the tires. Until the last lap, I thought we were going to finish fourth or fifth. Things rarely fall our way in a good way, so we’ll take this one.”For Reif, the disappointment was immediate but measured.“I was pushing 101 percent,” Reif said. “I heard Layne was coming and I didn’t want him to have a chance to get to me. My mistake. I don’t know how many more chances I’ll have like this, but I’m sure there’ll be more and I’ll make sure not to make that mistake again.”For everyone else, Coronado delivered its opening statement.Street racing in NASCAR remains slightly ridiculous, highly entertaining, and completely incapable of producing a normal ending.
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