{"id":14677,"date":"2025-07-16T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14677\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T20:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:59:07","slug":"nascar-evaluating-return-to-chicagoland-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/14677\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR evaluating return to Chicagoland Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR has been evaluating a possible return to Chicagoland Speedway for next year, according to people familiar with the matter, and the chances of the move happening are said to be increasing. Once derided as a \u201ccookie cutter\u201d 1.5-mile oval that produced predictable racing entertainment, the venue in Joliet, Ill., was removed from the NASCAR schedule in 2021<\/a>. But amid a revival in interest in 1.5-milers due to the characteristics of the seventh-generation race car that debuted in 2022, NASCAR fans have asked in stepped-up droves for a return to the sprawling venue. <\/p>\n

NASCAR first switched markets from Illinois to Wisconsin by going to the Road America road course<\/a> in 2021 before it took that event and made it the Chicago street race<\/a> from \u201923 through this year. NASCAR remains in talks with the city of Chicago about the future of the street race, and SBJ was not able to establish whether the property has officially decided to bring back Chicagoland for next year. No announcement has been made, and NASCAR declined comment. <\/p>\n

But the city of Chicago has signaled that it wants to explore moving the street race to a new date<\/a> and possibly ask NASCAR for better terms. If the sides can\u2019t agree on an extension, Chicagoland is likely to emerge as a top option for where the stock car series could move the date. 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.<\/p>\n

It could not be established by presstime how much NASCAR would need to invest to get the facility back up to standards after several years of largely being unused, but permanent motorsports venues like Chicagoland have massive footprints that can require capital expenditures well into the seven or eight figures to keep up with fans\u2019 modern-day expectations. The track, about an hour from downtown Chicago, is a legacy ISC venue that started hosting NASCAR and IndyCar races in 2001. One event it has hosted in recent years is a SuperMotocross event in September 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 2026 schedule has not been released, but it\u2019s likely to turn into another iteration of the sport\u2019s focus on innovation and surprise. Among the possible changes are bringing a race to the San Diego area in what would for series executives check an important box in getting back into the Southern California market. Following a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune<\/a> late last month listing possible locations, industry speculation and a report from Racer magazine<\/a> have started to center on the nearby city of Coronado as the most likely prospective site. Coronado has a major naval base, which could play well with the Americana traits of NASCAR.<\/p>\n

NASCAR also has to decide whether to return to Mexico City after the Cup Series race held this year in June. Also, a race in Canada in the coming years has also been mulled. NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue and Racing Officer Ben Kennedy has said that NASCAR has already created a mock 2031 schedule internally, so it\u2019s possible that it\u2019s somewhat working backward from the aspirations it has on that secret list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR has been evaluating a possible return to Chicagoland Speedway for next year, according to people familiar with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-14677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}