Chicagoland Speedway’s New General Manager Has Just One Goal: “Best Damn Thing I’ve Ever Done”

The Chicagoland Speedway will make its return to NASCAR in 2026 for the first time since 2019. From July 3-5, the ARCA Menards Series, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and the Cup Series will hold events at the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois. A key figure driving this comeback is the new general manager, Jacqueline Herrera, who’s set ambitious goals already. 

Born and raised in Chicago, Herrera spent a good part of her childhood going to races at the Chicagoland Speedway with her old man and obsessing over the heroes on the track. Under this full circle moment, the desire to make the track as great as it once was burns strong in her. In a teleconference, she opened up to NASCAR about where things stand eight months away from the all-important July dates.

“The property’s already in good condition,” Herrera said. “We do have our team — shout out to Dawn (Martin) and Collette (Nelson) at Chicagoland. They are already starting to make those updates and renovations, and then we have a lot of work ahead of us in the coming months, weeks, days.” So, what does she want out of all this hard work and effort?

“To make it the best race a NASCAR fan has ever attended. At the core of it, that’s exactly what I want,” she further explained. “I want any person that walks through our doors to walk away and say, ‘This is the best damn thing I’ve ever done,’ and walk away thinking, ‘I’m going to return to a NASCAR race,’ or ‘I’m going to go to another race.’”

That’s a strong and noble ambition to have without question.

Ryan Blaney’s excitement about returning to Chicago

Blaney is one of the many hardcore fans that the Chicagoland Speedway has. After going through the 2026 Cup Series schedule and looking at the beloved track’s name on it, he couldn’t help but express his excitement at the inclusion. Interestingly, he had been calling for the track to be brought back into the fold even before NASCAR made things official.

The 2023 Cup Series champ told the press in an August meeting, “I think bringing Chicagoland back is a great move. With losing the Chicago Street Race, bringing in Chicagoland, at least Illinois still has a race in their state, so I’m happy with that, and Joliet isn’t terribly far away from the city.”

Blaney strongly believed that the track would work great with the Next Gen car and expects a great show for fans.

There is still ample time for the track officials to work their magic and fulfill such high expectations. With emotion-driven people like Herrera behind the effort, there is no reason to doubt whether the hype will be worth it.