If NASCAR and the City of Chicago fail to reach an agreement over a potential two-year extension to continue holding a street race in downtown Chicago, there seems to be growing momentum to bring NASCAR back to Chicagoland Speedway in suburban Joliet, Illinois.
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That’s what Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern is reporting. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is NASCAR wanting to keep the race around the July 4th holiday, while city officials are pushing to move the date to either mid-to-late June or perhaps later in July or even early August. That’s problematic, given NASCAR’s already very tight schedule.
That’s where the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway (CLS) oval potentially comes back into play. The track, which is owned by NASCAR, opened in 2001 and hosted NASCAR through the 2019 season before it fell off the schedule.
Numerous reports after the 2019 season ended had NASCAR potentially selling the property CLS sits upon, as well as the adjacent Route 66 Raceway drag strip (also owned by NASCAR), to Amazon, which reportedly planned on tearing everything down and building a massive 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center.
Then COVID-19 hit. And with it went Amazon’s plans, leaving NASCAR with both facilities. NHRA drag racing came back to Route 66 in 2023, but CLS has hosted just one major event, the second round of the SuperMotocross World Championship in fall 2023, since NASCAR stopped racing there.
As the track became less popular and attendance waned over the years, there was a gradual reduction in the track’s original seating capacity down to today’s 47,000. One might wonder why NASCAR would want to return to CLS.
The reason is quite simple. With the advent of the Next Generation/Gen 7 car in 2022, racing on 1.5-mile tracks has become closer, more competitive and more exciting for drivers and fans.
If NASCAR and Chicago officials cannot come to an agreement to continue the street race, it’s possible that NASCAR will have a street race in or near San Diego, with Kelly Crandall of Racer.com reporting it could be on Coronado Island.
But don’t think the possibility of returning to CLS is a knee-jerk reaction on NASCAR’s part. The sanctioning body still has strong belief in Chicago as a viable and popular market. And if Chicago officials refuse to allow another July 4th NASCAR race weekend, that date can easily move to CLS and San Diego would likely take Mexico City’s spot on the 2026 schedule.
It’s still unclear if Mexico City will return to the schedule, whether it will be a one-and-done event, or if it will become part of a plan where it hosts a Cup race every other year, or possibly every third year.
No matter what, NASCAR does not want to give up racing in or near the Windy City.
Here’s what Stern wrote: “Over the last year or longer, NASCAR has prepared internally for the possibility of taking its national series back to Chicagoland, with staff visiting the track to survey the scene or model how costly it would be to do any renovations or cleanups, sources said.”
Could we also see another series return to Chicagoland?
There’s one other potential sweetener for reopening Chicagoland Speedway.
IndyCar has had a significant jump in attention this season, its first of a multi-year broadcast deal with FOX Sports. Other than racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500 and the annual road course race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, IndyCar has not had a presence in the Chicago area since 2010.
IndyCar raced for 10 straight years at CLS from 2001-2010. Why the series pulled out has never really been understood, as races there were usually the season finale and had some of the best and closest, not to mention well-attended, finishes the series has ever seen.
The contract with FOX would likely receive even greater value if IndyCar returns to CLS, potentially as early as next year. But that’s likely only if NASCAR returns as well. If it doesn’t want to expand beyond its current 17-race schedule, IndyCar has a perfect opening on its calendar in 2026 for a return to Chicagoland.
With Iowa Speedway likely on the skids of potentially losing at least one of its two annual IndyCar races, especially after last weekend’s poorly attended and marginally advertised doubleheader weekend there, taking away one of the two Iowa races could theoretically open up a spot on the schedule for a return to Chicagoland Speedway.
While some racing fans may dream of a NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader weekend at CLS, such an event is unlikely to happen. NASCAR would like to maximize revenue, and this could be lessened if both events were on the same weekend.
But that doesn’t mean CLS can’t host two race weekends next year, one that would likely see all three of NASCAR’s main series (Cup, Xfinity and Trucks) and another weekend that could feature the return of IndyCar and its IndyNXT junior series.
NASCAR and city officials are working against a closing window of having to reach an agreement to continue the three-year street race run within 45 days of this year’s race, which occurred on July 6. That means a decision will have to be reached by August 21 of this year.
