Two-thousand, five-hundred and sixty-two days.
That’s how long it’s been since NASCAR’s premier series last competed at Chicagoland Speedway. Located in Joliet, Ill., the 1.5-mile intermediate oval previously hosted the NASCAR Cup Series for 19 straight seasons.
Its inaugural Cup race ran on July 15, 2001, and was won by future Hall of Fame driver Kevin Harvick.
The most recent race in 2019 saw Alex Bowman, driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, hold off future teammate Kyle Larson for the race win.
Leading up to 2019, Chicagoland struggled to produce steady attendance numbers. In the 2010s, the track had a capacity of approximately 75,000. However, in 2019, overall capacity dropped to 44,000.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted NASCAR’s plans to race in the Windy City in 2020, and the venue was left off the calendar altogether in 2021. In its place was Road America, one of seven road courses on that season’s schedule.
For six years, as NASCAR continued to push boundaries with scheduling, with races at the Chicago street course, NASCAR’s first-ever street race, to last season’s trek south of the border to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, while Chicagoland sat dormant.
When it was announced in July 2025 that NASCAR would not return to the Chicago street course in 2026, rumors gained traction about a potential return to Chicagoland. The bread and butter of the Next Gen car has been the 1.5-mile intermediate ovals, which have produced some of the most exciting racing seen all season.
Rumors only intensified after Carson Hocevar posted pictures of the speedway to social media during a day trip there.
Last August, NASCAR announced that Chicagoland would return to the schedule as part of a tripleheader weekend of racing with the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, in addition to the Cup Series.
Racing on the Fourth of July weekend has been a staple of NASCAR’s history, with 38 races being held on the holiday weekend. Chicagoland’s return adds more incentive for NASCAR and its teams to put on an exciting weekend of racing.
In the most recent Cup race at Chicagoland, teams raced the controversial 550-hp, high-downforce package, prompting backlash against the intermediate-track racing product. In the Next Gen era, fans have seen their fair share of exciting, nail-biting races on this type of track, which could very well happen again at Chicagoland.
In late April, NASCAR held a two-day Goodyear tire test in anticipation of the return to Chicagoland that featured Larson, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin, along with O’Reilly drivers Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones.
Larson, who finished second in the last two Cup races in 2018 and 2019, spoke with the media about the track characteristics drivers could face this weekend.
“It’s just cool, it’s really fast,” Larson told reporters following the test session. “A lot faster pace than what I remember the old car being here. We’re on the throttle quite a bit, but it’s also not as hot as what it was the last time we were here. It’ll be hot when we come back, so the pace should slow down.”
One thing is for certain as drivers prepare for this weekend’s race: the track surface is going to throw teams a curveball when fine-tuning setups.
“One of the neatest things about this place, I thought the surface was at a really good point of like, very well aged, to where we’re going to use the whole racetrack,” Blaney explained. “Tire falloff is going to be pretty big, especially when we come back in the summer.”
Should Sunday’s race be a battle of which driver can manage tire wear the best, expect Hamlin to be the favorite. No one does so better than Hamlin, whose car seems more set up for long runs rather than short sprints. Additionally, look for Larson to be a contender.
Blaney, currently fourth in points, enters Chicagoland with a streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes dating back to the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Following three finishes of 20th or worse in the last four races, Tyler Reddick trails Hamlin in the regular season standings by one point.
There’s bound to be fireworks aplenty this weekend at Chicagoland, and not just because of Independence Day festivities.
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