For the first time since 2019, the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series are returning to the mile-and-a-half oval of Chicagoland Speedway – a return to racing in Joliet, Illinois that many never thought would happen.
The speedway hosted 19 NASCAR Cup Series events between 2001 and 2019 and was scheduled to host its 20th in June 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on NASCAR’s schedules. However, the fan-favorite racetrack never returned once the world returned to normalcy, being ousted in favor of the Chicago Street Course.
2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney was one of five drivers (three from the NASCAR Cup Series and two from the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) that participated in a two-day Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland in April. From what the Team Penske driver could tell, excitement about NASCAR’s return to Joliet is quite high.
“It was nice to be there,” Blaney said. “That was the first time we’ve been there since 2019, and the track was actually in really good shape. I thought the property looked great. A lot of fans came out. They said they had over 1,000 people that just came out to watch practice for a little bit.”
It’s been six years since NASCAR last raced at Chicagoland, and things have changed dramatically: the NASCAR Cup Series uses a brand-new racecar (the NextGen), the field is completely different, and, according to those who have done the tire test, the surface is much more abrasive than previously.
“The track is very similar to what I remember it being. There’s a big patch bump into one, big bump over the tunnel,” Blaney continued. “We didn’t get super wide. We only got to a couple lanes at the test, but it’s just dirty. If you don’t start up there, it just eventually gets too dirty to run it, but when we go back there, we’re going to use everything, which is good. The surface is pretty worn out, but I’m pretty excited to get back there. I think it’s going to put on a great show. I think this car is going to perform really well there when it has multiple lanes and stuff like that, so I’m excited.”
NASCAR Cup Series veteran AJ Allmendinger, who just made his 500th career start last weekend at Sonoma Raceway, agrees with many of the drivers who have commented on Chicagoland: “[It’s] going to be bumpy, slick and hot, so it’ll present a unique challenge,” he said. “It might be somewhat similar to Charlotte, but we haven’t raced at Chicagoland in so long that it’s hard to know what to expect. There are a lot of unknowns for everybody.
While Allmendinger believes the racetrack will be comparable to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where teams contested the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend, Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet believes it’ll be a totally unique racetrack – even different from previous trips.
“We haven’t had a race there since 2019 and with the very harsh winters and weather in general, I expect it to be a very rough surface for all of the bumps to be even more pronounced than they were a few years ago,” Chastain said. “I think it’ll feel like a completely different track from what we were used to when we went there every year. Tire management is going to be key since the surface is going to be so abrasive. But those kinds of things make the race exciting and very technical for both the drivers and the crew chiefs.”
Connor Zilisch and Shane Van Gisbergen, Chastain’s teammates at Trackhouse Racing, are part of a large contingent of drivers competing in this weekend’s Cup, O’Reilly, and ARCA Menards Series events who have never competed at Chicagoland – which, based on how some veterans are saying the track has changed, might be a benefit, not knowing the old characteristics of the track.
“I certainly think it’s aged over the past few years, and I think it’s going to be worse than the last time NASCAR raced there, and it was already abrasive,” Zilisch said. “I’m expecting all of the bumps and characteristics of the track to be different than 2019 and I think that running the O’Reilly race is going to be beneficial for me to feel those things before I get on track in the Cup car.”
Van Gisbergen won’t have the benefit of running double-duty this weekend at Chicagoland and will go into Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice cold turkey, so to say: “It’s going to be good, I think. It looks really challenging, really bumpy. There is a bit of footage going around from the tire test that I’ve been watching. It looks awesome, really rough in these Next Gen cars. In all the testing footage, they are wrapped around the bottom in one lane, but I’ve gone back and watched the 2019 race there, and they are all over the track. I’m looking forward to going somewhere new and having a long practice as well; it will definitely help me.”
Zane Smith returns to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend with one ARCA Menards Series and one NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start under his belt but says his main source of information about the track has come from David Ragan – who did the wheel force test for Ford Racing.
“That’s difficult too because that’s a really green racetrack they were on,” Smith said about the information from the test. “It’s all tough, but I’m hearing some comparisons to Charlotte with the bumps, and a combination of like Vegas bumps and wear is almost like Kansas. Who knows? I’m just trying to approach it like any other mile-and-a-half. The biggest question mark are the bumps with the Next Gen car and how it’s going to handle that, but certainly one of the best mile-and-a-halves character-wise and the racing it produced.”
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB crew chiefs Travis Mack and Justin Alexander agree that this weekend’s race at Chicagoland “will be a little bit of a curveball for everyone”, and as Mack, shot caller for John Hunter Nemechek, says, may even “level out the playing field”.
Alex Bowman is the defending NASCAR Cup Series race-winner at Chicagoland Speedway, back in 2019, and even he doesn’t have any idea what the track will be like this coming weekend. When Bowman spoke to the media on Tuesday, he hadn’t even run the sim yet, just talked to Kyle Larson – who did the tire test for Hendrick Motorsports.
“I just think it’s going to be tricky with the NextGen car,” Bowman explained. “That place is slick so you’re going to be sliding around a lot, which the NextGen is inherently hard to slide much without it getting away from you, and it’s very bumpy, and NextGen is tough through the bumps.”
“It’ll be interesting to see how the track widens out and what grooves are and aren’t at play because of the bumps, and see what works. It’s kind of fun to go to a place without a huge notebook.”
The NASCAR Cup Series will be on-track this weekend for a full practice session on Friday, July 3 at 6:00 PM ET, with qualifying taking place the following afternoon at 3:00 PM ET. The eero 400 will take place on Sunday, July 5 at 6:00 PM ET on TNT.
