NASCAR has made the decision to head to Chicago for a race which means the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet misses out
Chicagoland Speedway hosted a NASCAR race every year from 2001 up until 2019. The Coronavirus Pandemic in early 2020 shuffled the schedule, and NASCAR didn’t include Chicagoland in the 2021 or 2022 season. Last week, NASCAR announced that Chicago would get a Street Race in 2023, the first in the history of the sport. So what about Chicagoland Speedway?
There are a number of unknowns when it comes to what happened with NASCAR’s relationship with Chicagoland. The announcement of a Street Race all but sealed any possibility of the organization stepping in and buying the track before it becomes a Warehouse District. If they were truly concerned at all with the speedway, at the very least, the Camping World Truck Series could have run a race there.
"It gives us the ability to go into new markets."
We're taking the show on the road. 🏙
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 20, 2022
I get the upside to racing on the streets of Chicago, especially the scenic view of South Lake Shore Drive, but we’ve had NASCAR close to the Windy City for two decades. There will be a substantial amount of money made by them to run the street race, from vendors to hotel revenue and ad money for the city, but at the cost of two race tracks, Chicagoland and Road America.
The future remains ever changing, which has helped usher in a new era of fans, but the die-hard Sunday viewers might be changing the channel in favor of another sport soon.
As for Chicagoland Speedway, it looks very close to certain that the property where the race track sits will soon be a warehouse junction for local corporations. Such a disappointment to the people that helped build the track and the culture around the Joliet area.
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