NASCAR Returns to Chicagoland Speedway for First Time Since 2019 provides some perspective on the legendary monitor’s return to motion this weekend. By Reid Scearce
For 3 consecutive summers, the thrills of NASCAR have been introduced by way of downtown Chicago and the 90-degree turns of Grant Park. Nevertheless, this Fourth of July weekend, race followers can sit up for the extremely anticipated return of Chicagoland Speedway.
NASCAR Returns to Chicagoland Speedway
The transfer pauses NASCAR’s experimental, downtown Chicago Road Race, in favor of returning to a fan-favorite monitor that has delivered a few of the most compelling racing within the sport. When the inexperienced flag drops for the eero 400 on Sunday, July 5, it can mark the primary time in seven years that the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois, has hosted a NASCAR race.
After 18 years of motion, Chicagoland Speedway closed following the 2019 NASCAR season, largely as a consequence of declining grandstand attendance, regardless of remaining a fan-favorite monitor identified for its persistently thrilling racing.
Three years after abandoning the Chicago market, NASCAR launched the Chicago Road Race which ran from 2023 to 2025. It was a spectacle occasion developed by NASCAR to introduce American motorsport followers to avenue racing, and the likes of world-class racers similar to New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen, who gained the inaugural race in his debut.
However, the occasion’s very nature meant it at all times had restricted permanence, being each a logistical nightmare and extremely depending on the climate. Thus, if race followers wish to expertise the road race as soon as once more, town of Chicago must endure the operational complications of shutting down main metropolis arteries throughout Fourth of July weekend.
Chicagoland Speedway’s revival is a part of NASCAR’s effort to reward its most loyal followers, whereas nonetheless managing a foothold within the essential, profitable Chicago market. The encompassing campgrounds will likely be at practically full capability for the vacation weekend, as Cup Sequence tickets are 95% offered out, in keeping with Brake Laborious.
“Our followers have been asking for a race in Joliet for the previous a number of years,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Government Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer, famous when the 2026 schedule was first unveiled.
The return to the oval not solely satisfies followers’ nostalgia, however the timing couldn’t be extra good for the monitor’s debut of the Subsequent Gen automobile on the venerable multi-groove floor. The eero 400 serves because the second leg of the TNT Sports activities In-Season Problem, the place drivers face off in a tournament-style bracket format over 5 races to find out the winner of a $1 million prize. The intermediate 1.5-mile tracks have develop into absolutely the candy spot for the present automobile blueprint, routinely producing breathtaking, side-by-side racing and heavy tire degradation.
Fourth of July Celebration in a Full Weekend of Motion
Denny Hamlin holds a one-point benefit within the common season standings over his worker driver, Tyler Reddick. Hamlin is among the few lively drivers with accolades at Chicagoland, having gained the race again in 2015.
Tyler Reddick comes into this race with a chip on his shoulder, chasing redemption after a devastating mechanical failure final week at Sonoma stripped him of a season-long factors lead.
Drivers with robust dirt-racing backgrounds like Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson are considered as favorites to excel on Chicagoland’s broad racing floor, the place drivers can run wherever from the underside apron proper up towards the skin wall.
The long-awaited multi-day competition began Friday night time, with the ARCA Menards Sequence Ashley Furnishings 150 beneath the lights. Connor Mosack introduced residence the trophy together with his victory for Pinnacle Racing Group. The motion intensifies on Saturday, July 4, with the Cuervo 300 (NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Components Sequence), earlier than Sunday’s essential occasion.
