As you may have heard, Nascar will be running its first-ever street course today in Chicago, Illinois in Grant Park (cooler by the lake). What you may NOT have heard is that Nascar has run in and around The Windy City three times before. Here’s a quick look back:
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY—Part of the late-90’s “cookie cutter craze”, this track in Joliet was a 1.52 mile d-shaped oval (which means that if Bruton Smith had built it, it would’ve had a dog-leg). This track is probably best-known for three things—being one of the only tracks in Nascar history to be completely round, the time a giant inflatable orange blew onto the track, and being incredibly boring. Despite being located in a major market (well, nearby), this track was mercifully removed from the schedule in 2020 after nearly two decades of dull, monotonous racing. BEARS CONNECTION—This track has been offered a site for the new Chicago Bears’ stadium, a long-running desire of the NFL franchise.
CHICAGO MOTOR SPEEDWAY—One of the most-obscure tracks in Nascar’s modern-era, this track in nearby Cicero existed for a grand total of about four years, from 1999 through 2002. Strangely, this track hosted both auto AND horse racing, making it the only instance in human history of someone copying what Dover Delaware did. The mile-long “flat track” was unfortunately built just before the economy tanked, and just before Nascar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided to build a bigger, better (in theory) track in Joliet. Now its a the site of a Walmart and a liquor distributor…I mean really, what more do you need? BEARS CONNECTION—In its previous iteration as a dedicated horse racing track, it competed regularly with Arlington Raceway, a proposed site for the new Chicago Bears’ stadium, a long-running desire of the NFL franchise.
SOLDIER FIELD—That’s right, the famous football stadium once hosted Nascar races! No, seriously! The half-mile oval around the football field regularly hosted local “Saturday Night Specials”, but also hosted a single Grand National Series (today’s Cup Series) race in 1958, plus three Convertible Division races as well. The overall “field” inside the grandstands was far bigger than it is now, thus why the track was so much longer than the current LA Coliseum course. Alas, renovations in the 1970s removed the racing surface, while renovations in the early-2000’s negated any real chance of returning racing there (as well as making the structure look like a flying saucer). BEARS CONNECTION—it has hosted the Chicago Bears since 1971 (less one year where they played at the University of Illinois), and have been fighting with the city since…well, 1971 about renovations to modernize the aging stadium. If not, the team might move to a new suburban Chicago Bears’ stadium, a long-running desire of the NFL franchise.
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Does this track have lights?
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