According to NASCAR-oriented website www.kickinthetires.net, the future of Chicagoland Speedway and likely Route 66 Raceway is intact and will not go away.
“Yes, the track would remain,” Michael Schwarz, Joliet’s Director of the city’s Planning Commission told www.kickinthetires.net, via email. “The proposed sale only involves accessory parking on the east side of the property.”
As far as NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing is concerned, NHRA’s Vice President of Communications Jeffrey Young said the sanctioning body is moving forward with plans to run the Route 66 Nationals as planned.
The only unknown is at this time, Young said, is knowing for certain what the state health restrictions will be when the postponed event is scheduled to run unofficially August 28-29, 2020.
Multiple media sources reported that the town’s planning commission for the city Joliet, Illinois, is to hear from a group that plans to turn much of the existing Chicagoland Speedway into a subdivision. Other talk has linked the track being sold to Amazon. The 1.5-mile track, which opened in 2001, is one of 13 facilities owned by NASCAR, which last fall completed an acquisition of a sister company, International Speedway Corporation.
