Two years ago, NASCAR assigned Ben Kennedy the task of addressing two items on the stock car racing wish list — adding a Southern California race and staging a race on a military base. Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and NASCAR’s chief venue and racing innovation officer, found the answer to both needs with one site.

The event returns NASCAR to Southern California. NASCAR raced at California Speedway in Fontana — about 50 miles east of Los Angeles — from 1997-2020, skipping 2021 and returning in 2022 and 2023. That track was closed after 2023 and part of its land sold. A plan was to convert the 2-mile track to a short track but that has not been done.