Arts & Entertainment
NASCAR Returning to Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway in 2026 Amid Pause in Chicago Street Race
A still from a promotional video for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race. (Courtesy of NASCAR)
NASCAR won’t be taking over Chicago’s downtown streets next summer, but racing enthusiasts can still get their fix nearby as the Chicagoland Speedway will be hosting a pair of races over the Fourth of July weekend in 2026.
For the first time in seven years, NASCAR will be returning to the 1.5-mile speedway in Joliet with an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly known as the Xfinity Series) race on July 4 and a Cup Series race scheduled for July 5.
“Our fans have been asking for a race in Joliet for the past several years,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer, said in a statement Wednesday. “If you look at the racing product on our mile-and-a-half tracks, they’ve been some of the most competitive and compelling events that we’ve had in our season, and we’re confident that Joliet is going to deliver exactly that.”
The announcement comes a month after organizers announced that the Chicago Street Race would not be returning downtown in 2026 after three years of races held annually during the Fourth of July holiday.
The Xfinity and Cup Series races in Chicago — held on a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course against the backdrop of Lake Michigan and Grant Park — are the main events in a festival-like weekend that also includes music and entertainment options.
It is geared as much to a new audience in one of NASCAR’s most important regions as it is to the most ardent racing fans. Kennedy previously called Chicago “a top-three market for us, worldwide frankly, for NASCAR fans.”
Officials hope to bring that race back to Chicago in 2027.
“Even though we don’t have an event in downtown Chicago, we felt like it was still important to keep that market engaged while we’re racing in Chicagoland,” Kennedy said, “but we also would like to leave the door open to return to Chicago in the future as well.”
NASCAR’s Cup Series — the racing organization’s top series — has raced at the Chicagoland Speedway 19 times, but not since 2019. Officials said some facility updates will be necessary following that seven-year hiatus.
Officials said next year’s race will be part of the TNT Sports portion of the Cup Series season, slotting as Round 2 of the 2026 In-Season Challenge in which drivers battle head-to-head for the shot at $1 million.
“TNT, I think, is going to deliver in a really great way,” Kennedy said. “Then I would say, on top of that, it being the 250th anniversary of our country, being in a place like Chicagoland on July 4th weekend, if you think about the camping ground, being about Americana, being in the Midwest and the heartland of our country, you couldn’t ask for a better location or date for it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
