NASCAR’s Chicago Dilemma Just Got A Lot More Complicated

For years, NASCAR had a Chicago problem.

After Sunday it now it has a Chicago dilemma.

After spending three seasons racing through the streets of downtown Chicago, NASCAR returned this weekend to Chicagoland Speedway, the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet that had sat dormant on the Cup Series schedule since 2019.

The timing couldn’t have been more interesting.

With NASCAR expected to unveil its 2027 schedule in the coming weeks, industry speculation has increasingly pointed toward a return to the downtown street course next season. If that happens, the obvious question becomes whether Chicagoland Speedway was simply a one-year reunion or the beginning of something more permanent.

And it turns out it’s not a bad problem to have.

For years, fans questioned why NASCAR walked away from one of the Midwest’s premier speedways. The answer wasn’t that the sanctioning body wanted out of the Chicago market. Quite the opposite.

In 2022, NASCAR announced it would trade the suburbs for the city itself, replacing Chicagoland Speedway with a temporary street course winding through Grant Park. The inaugural race in 2023 became the Cup Series’ first modern-era street race and delivered one of the sport’s most memorable moments when Shane van Gisbergen won in his series debut.

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JULY 02: Christopher Bell, driver of the CRAFTSMAN Racing For A Miracle Toyota,and Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the Enhance Health Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 at the Chicago Street Course on July 02, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

On the streets, the experiment worked.

Off the streets, things became considerably more complicated.

Residents complained about weeks of road closures, restricted access to Grant Park and disruptions to businesses and summer events. Several Chicago aldermen criticized how the agreement came together, arguing there had been too little public input before it was finalized. NASCAR and city officials responded by shortening construction schedules and reducing the amount of time roads and park space were occupied, but the debate over whether the event’s economic benefits outweighed the inconvenience never completely disappeared.

If NASCAR wanted to find out whether Chicagoland Speedway still mattered, it received a convincing answer.

Despite days of heavy rain that turned several grass parking lots into swamps, track officials adjusted parking plans and welcomed a sellout crowd, the sixth sellout in the last seven NASCAR Cup Series races this season. Once the green flag waved, the racing did the rest.

The return to Chicagoland produced a track-record 28 lead changes and ended with Indiana native Chase Briscoe celebrating in Victory Lane, just a few hours from his hometown.

Suddenly, NASCAR’s scheduling decision became even more complicated.

Before the race, Briscoe had already made it clear he hoped Chicagoland Speedway wasn’t simply making a one-year cameo.

“I hope that we can continue to come here,” Briscoe said Saturday. “Hopefully it puts on an amazing race. Hopefully the fans turn out and if so, hopefully we can keep coming back even if there is a Chicago street race again. Maybe we can do two different races here.”

The Indiana native argued that the upper Midwest remains one of NASCAR’s strongest yet least-served regions.

“I enjoy coming back to the Midwest,” Briscoe said. “I feel like there’s a ton of race fans in this region, whether it’s Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana. There’s not a whole lot of races up in the northern part of the Midwest, so hopefully they can keep coming.”

At the same time, Briscoe doesn’t believe NASCAR should abandon the thinking that produced the Chicago Street Race.

“I think we need to keep doing stuff like we did with the Chicago Street Race or San Diego,” he said. “Take the race to fans that would never see us.”

Twenty-four hours later, after proving his point with a victory, Briscoe admitted winning so close to home made the weekend even more meaningful.

“Chicago is kind of like a second home track,” Briscoe said Sunday. “It’s four and a half hours from home. I have a lot of people here that don’t get to see me race at a lot of other places. Just being able to win here and being relatively close to home is always nice.”

Briscoe’s team owner, Joe Gibbs, sees little reason NASCAR should abandon the market again.

“I think there’s been a lot put into this, and I think this part of America is huge for our sport…”

Joe Gibbs

“I think there’s been a lot put into this, and I think this part of America is huge for our sport…”

“I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t,” Gibbs said when asked about Chicagoland’s future. “I think there’s been a lot put into this, and I think this part of America is huge for our sport. We’ve got a lot of our sponsors here that enjoy this. I think the reason we came back is a huge deal.”

Gibbs stopped short of choosing between Chicagoland Speedway and the downtown street course.

“We’re talking about the street race, so we’ll see what all happens,” he said. “That’s out of my hands… Who knows? We may do both.”

That sentiment was echoed throughout the garage.

Defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano praised NASCAR’s willingness to keep the schedule fresh.

“I think NASCAR has done a great job the last couple of years of being unpredictable with the schedule,” Logano said. “Maybe we don’t come here every single year, but maybe it’s a once every two or three-year thing. Stuff like that helps continue to grow the sport.”

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 05: Chase Briscoe, driver of the Bass Pro Shops Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 05, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

He also acknowledged that putting together events like the Chicago Street Race isn’t nearly as simple as fans sometimes assume.

“We can sit in this room and say, ‘Sure, that sounds great,'” Logano said. “I think there’s a lot more that goes into it politically. We shut down roads and cities. I’m assuming it’s really hard to do.”

Austin Dillon made the case for Chicagoland itself.

“I hate to abandon any racetrack,” Dillon said. “Every one of them has character and this one definitely has a lot of character.”

Dillon compared the speedway’s worn racing surface to Homestead-Miami Speedway and Darlington Raceway, arguing that its unique characteristics produce the kind of racing fans want to watch.

Pole winner Denny Hamlin perhaps summed up NASCAR’s predicament better than anyone before Sunday’s race.

“This region is very important for us and we need to keep this region on the schedule once if not twice,” Hamlin said. “This racetrack is going to race so well tomorrow that it will be hard to say let’s just take it back off the schedule.”

By Sunday evening, that prediction looked considerably less like optimism and more like foresight.

Hamlin acknowledged there are only so many dates available and every addition usually comes at someone else’s expense.

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JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 05: A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 05, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

“It’s hard to leave a track like this that has some wear and character off the schedule going forward,” he said. “I appreciate Ben Kennedy and his team putting it back on the schedule after all of these years.”

Chicagoland Speedway answered every question NASCAR could reasonably ask of it. It sold out. It produced a record 28 lead changes. A Midwestern driver celebrated in Victory Lane. And for one afternoon, it reminded everyone why so many people wanted it back.

Which leaves NASCAR with a problem it probably didn’t expect to have.

It’s no longer choosing between a good option and a better one.

It’s choosing between two events that have both made compelling cases to stay.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com