As Frank Sinatra used to sing, “My Kind of Town, Chicago Is,” it’s apparent that the Windy City is also Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s kind of town.
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On this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download, the NASCAR Hall of Famer said he’s definitely in favor of NASCAR returning to the long-vacant Chicagoland Speedway (known simply as CLS).
With the Chicago Street Race on at least a one-year hiatus in 2026 and no guarantee it will come back at all, if the San Diego Street Race on Naval Base Coronado proves to be a much bigger hit, NASCAR still needs to keep a presence in Chicago.
That’s why Earnhardt is so keen on NASCAR bringing all three of its national series, Cup, Xfinity and Trucks, back to the 1.5-mile oval located about 50 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
CLS last hosted NASCAR in 2019. Since then, the NASCAR-owned facility has stood vacant, with the exception of a motocross playoff race in the fall of 2023. Other than that, the only things racing around the track have been ants and other bugs.
But reports surfaced earlier this week that CLS will almost certainly return to the NASCAR schedule next year, particularly with the San Diego event added to the schedule in place of the Chicago Street Race, and the likelihood that the Mexico City race will not return until at least 2027.
That leaves a gaping hole for CLS to return to the NASCAR schedule.
“I feel like that was the worst kept secret,” Earnhardt said about NASCAR’s return to CLS. “I’m excited about that and I think it’ll happen. I don’t think the schedule’s finished. I’m not trying to like, get things stirred up or anything.
“There could be nothing else that comes out about the schedule. It might be San Diego and Chicagoland comes back and we lose Mexico City and the Chicago Street Course and that’s that.”
Dale Jr. shows his hand that he knows something
While Earnhardt isn’t quite ready to say the schedule is complete, given that he’ll likely be part of the Amazon Prime and TNT Sports broadcast team that will televise the 10 races in the middle of the season as they did this year, if anyone knows what’s going on with the schedule, it’s him.
“But I’ve heard about some other things that might happen,” Earnhardt said. “And if they do, boy, that’d be fantastic. So, the schedule’s going to keep changing every year, and I like that. I like the fact that we can get Chicago back.”
And this is where Junior kind of played his hand that he knows more than he’s letting on.
“I think that getting Chicagoland back is going to cost some money,” he said. “It’s gonna take five to ten million dollars to get that track back together and get everything fixed up and cleaned up and ready to go.
“But I think it’ll put on a hell of a show and it’s going to be slick and worn out. Oh, it’s gonna be so abrasive, it is (which usually means great racing). So it should be pretty awesome, wide, they’ll be all over the place.
“That track also has this really, really, really nasty bump in the middle of (turns) three and four, and you know how these damn NextGen cars are with bumps.
“I think it’s going to be a freaking handful. So, they’ll have to run the cars at a certain height to be able to get through there without crashing on the blocks and all that crazy stuff.
“And that’ll make the car drive like (expletive) everywhere else. And so that’s good. That’s a good thing. So I’m excited about Chicagoland.”
And then Junior shows his hand yet again
And that’s where Junior again somewhat showed his hand that he knows more than he’s letting on when he essentially confirmed the CLS race is a “go” for next season because he’ll be part of the broadcast team.
“I feel like it’s going to be a race that you’re gonna want to tune into and you’re going to be entertained and enjoy,” he concluded.
If that isn’t a huge hint, we don’t know what else is.
