Track: Chicagoland Speedway
Location: Joliet, Illinois
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 6 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Segments: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments
Veterans, first-timers share new-car feel in Chicagoland’s rebirth
JOLIET, Ill. — Coming back to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019 has felt in some ways familiar. The trappings of race tracks that sprang up in the late 1990s and early aughts are all still here, and many of the faces that starred in the track’s first era are still stars during its rebirth.
Several Chicagoland memories have been replayed — the Kyle Busch crying-eyes meme, the Tropicana orange invasion, the Victory Lane slimings — in the buildup to Sunday’s revival, but many other facets of big-league stock-car racing have changed in the years since. Three organizations — 23XI, Trackhouse and Kaulig — didn’t exist as Cup teams back in 2019, and the current-generation Cup Series car that bowed in 2022 is a radical shift from its on-track predecessor.
MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos
Nostalgia notwithstanding, there’s plenty of reason for drivers to approach Sunday’s eero 400 as a new race at a new venue on the schedule after three years of racing on Chicago’s downtown streets. It’s also another moment for the In-Season Challenge — another feature that wasn’t around in 2019 — with 16 drivers moving into the second round of the second-annual tournament.
With the degree of newness comes a measure of mystery. Of the 38 drivers in the field Sunday, 21 of them have Cup Series starts at Chicagoland. Those Joliet veterans, however, say that their experience in the track’s previous era may not tip the performance scales in their favor.
“I definitely thought coming into this, past experiences would matter,” 23XI’s Tyler Reddick said before qualifying 13th Saturday. “I mean it’s just one sample of it and that was yesterday’s practice, but just based off yesterday, I would say past experience doesn’t matter quite nearly as much as I thought it was going to. I remember coming here in an O’Reilly (Auto Parts Series) car, and lots of (tire) fall-off, having to move around. I’m sure they’re experiencing that right now, but just by nature, how different the Cup car can be kind of showed itself a bit yesterday.”
While there are comparable 1.5-mile tracks, the idiosyncrasies of each one present distinct challenges. The bumps from the original, sealed-up asphalt surface remain, but those quirks have hit differently with the Next Gen racer. A sizable drop in Turn 1 has unsettled several cars in practice and qualifying, and another dip through Turns 3 and 4 has provided another series of character marks. Finding reference points elsewhere on the Cup schedule has been a speedway scavenger hunt.
“No, because it’s like really smooth, and then it’s just the biggest slam that I think we have, and then you’re smooth again,” said Carson Hocevar, who was 16 years old when NASCAR last visited here and who connected Chicagoland’s traits to everything from the rough San Diego street-course runways to the treacherous portions of Texas.
In the short span of the first weekend back so far, several trends have already emerged. Cup Series drivers were reluctant to be the first to test the higher lanes in Friday’s 50-minute practice, but the groove widened upward once O’Reilly Auto Parts Series cars ventured that direction in Saturday’s preliminary sessions, hinting at more of the same in Sunday’s main event.
MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Chicagoland
The other trend was speed from the Cup Series points leader as Denny Hamlin secured the top starting spot for the fourth consecutive oval race. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver was one of three who participated in a Goodyear tire test here in April, with fellow front-runners Ryan Blaney and defending champ Kyle Larson joining him.
That experience might not tilt the playing field. Same goes for the experience from the first Chicagoland incarnation.
“I’ve been here a lot through the years, and that being said, going out there in this car after that long, felt like the first time,” said RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, who made four Chicagoland starts from 2016-19. “Yes, I knew the bump into (Turn) 1 is big and has that big moment. I knew the roughness in (Turns) 3 and 4 was going to be there, but I’m still relearning where it’s all at and what this car does with it. So, is there an advantage there? Probably not a ton. Denny pointed out, even from the test here, there’s a couple cars that did a test, and you’d think that they would have a big advantage, and they may have for about five laps, but ultimately stuff changes really quick and everybody’s going to figure it out rather quickly.”
In the details …
The Cup Series schedule has made four trips to 1.5-mile tracks this season, excluding the same-length EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta and its superspeedway-hybrid style of racing. The intermediate-sized circuits have been a leading indicator for teams’ overall performance, but success at this specific track type doesn’t necessarily correlate to stature in the Cup Series standings.
Another 1.5-mile layout arrives Sunday in Chicagoland, and there’s a level of uncertainty looming, given the track’s seven-year absence from the schedule. Here’s a look at top performers on 1.5-mile tracks this year and their points placement heading into Sunday’s showdown:
| Driver | Average finish | Points position |
|---|---|---|
| Denny Hamlin | 2.5 | 1st |
| Tyler Reddick | 5.5 | 2nd |
| William Byron | 6.8 | 12th |
| Brad Keselowski | 11.0 | 18th |
| Daniel Suárez | 11.0 | 9th |
| Bubba Wallace | 11.3 | 13th |
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
– Chicagoland hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
– Sunday Setup: Navigating the nuances, tires and strategy in Chicagoland | Read more
– Revisiting greatness: A look back at Kyle Busch’s 2018 triumph in Joliet | Read more
– In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Round 2 | Read more
– Analysis: Predictors, expectations abound in Chicagoland’s return | Read more
– Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh at-track looks for Sunday’s 400-miler | View gallery
– Hauler Talk: A glimpse inside the Remote Race Control center | Listen now
– NASCAR Classics: Reminisce with full-race replays from Chicagoland | Watch now
– Power Rankings: Bell looking for a spark after Sonoma | This week’s ranks