CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY - JOLIET IL
First discussions of building a major speedway near Chicago took place in an informal meeting between Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George and International Speedway Corporation Chief Executive Officer Bill France, Jr. in late 1995. In 1996, the search began for a site to build a speedway somewhere near Chicago. Several sites were considered, and a track was built in the Joliet area. Raceway Associates revealed the track would be a 1.5 miles D-shaped tri-oval superspeedway. Joie Chitwood III was named vice president and general manager of the facility. The track opened in July of 2001. All three of NASCAR premier series have raced at the facility. The first Cup race saw
Kevin Harvick claim his second ever Cup win. He returned in 2002 and defended his title. The next eight years saw eight different winners. During the time the track hosted Cup events it had 12 different winners in 19 races. Tony Stewart was a three time winner. The Indy Car Series also raced at the track from 2001 through 2010. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, races at the Chicagoland Speedway for the 2020 season were canceled. Shortly thereafter, most of the track employees were laid off. In May 2020, it was leaked that large parts of the land around the track would be sub-developed into an industrial park, leaving the future of the speedway unknown. In September it was announced that there would be no races there in 2021; and as of 2022 the track has been taking off of the NASCAR schedule all together and it's date replaced with another location.
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