NASCAR will race at Chicagoland Speedway in 2026, the sanctioning body announced Wednesday.
All Star Race moves to Dover, North Wilkesboro gets a points race
The sport returns to the 1.5-mile facility for the first time in seven years, with the NASCAR Cup Series scheduled to race at the oval on July 5. The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will join the Cup Series for a points-paying race, slated to run on July 4.
“Our fans have been asking for a race in Joliet (Illinois) for the past several years,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venue & racing innovation officer. “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 return will fit into the TNT Sports portion of the Cup Series season, slotting as Round 2 of the 2026 In-Season Challenge, where drivers will battle head-to-head once again 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 last time the premier series raced at Chicagoland was in June 2019, when Alex Bowman took the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports to Victory Lane. The Cup Series has raced at the facility a total of 19 times, with many memorable moments, including the iconic “slide job” during the 2018 running that saw Kyle Busch triumph over Kyle Larson.
While some updates to the facility will be necessary for NASCAR to return after a seven-year hiatus, the track sits mostly ready for a roaring return.
“We’re going to be making improvements to Chicagoland before we go back next year,” Kennedy said. “The good news is, it’s relatively Cup-ready, so we won’t need to make significant improvements or changes to the facility, but the fans can expect it to feel like a Cup-ready facility when they come there in July of next year.
“So, working on plans to begin some of those improvements. It’ll probably start later this year and then into the spring of next year. I think it’s going to be another good addition to the schedule.”
The July race weekend keeps NASCAR in the Chicago area, with Joliet sitting just south of the downtown streets the national series raced in the past, keeping an important presence in the Midwest market. NASCAR raced in downtown Chicago from 2023-25, with the door open for a future return.
“You know, the Midwest is really important to us, and if you look at our schedule overall, I think what we’re trying to do is cover the entire country and then also spread our events out kind of evenly across the country as well,” Kennedy said. “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, but we also would like to leave the door open to return to Chicago in the future as well.
“We’ve been pretty explicit earlier this year that even if we don’t return in 2026, we’d love to have the opportunity to come back there in the future. And I think the good news is that Julie (Giese) and the team have built so many incredible relationships with the city, with the departments, with a lot of folks in and around the downtown and Metro Chicago area to give us an opportunity to return there in the future, and that’s something that we hope to do.”
See the full 2026 Cup Series schedule below:
| Date | Race / Track | Broadcast partner |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, Feb. 1 | Clash (Bowman Gray Stadium) | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, Feb. 15 | Daytona 500 | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, Feb. 22 | EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, March 1 | Circuit of The Americas (Austin) | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, March 8 | Phoenix Raceway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, March 15 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, March 22 | Darlington Raceway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, March 29 | Martinsville Speedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, April 12 | Bristol Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, April 19 | Kansas Speedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, April 26 | Talladega Superspeedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, May 3 | Texas Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, May 10 | Watkins Glen International | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, May 17 | All-Star Race (Dover Motor Speedway) | FOX Sports |
| Sunday, May 24 | Charlotte Motor Speedway | Prime Video |
| Sunday, May 31 | Nashville Superspeedway | Prime Video |
| Sunday, June 7 | Michigan International Speedway | Prime Video |
| Sunday, June 14 | Pocono Raceway | Prime Video |
| Sunday, June 21 | San Diego (Naval Base Coronado) | Prime Video |
| Sunday, June 28 | Sonoma Raceway | TNT Sports |
| Sunday, July 5 | Chicagoland Speedway | TNT Sports |
| Sunday, July 12 | EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) | TNT Sports |
| Sunday, July 19 | North Wilkesboro Speedway | TNT Sports |
| Sunday, July 26 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway | TNT Sports |
| Sunday, Aug. 9 | Iowa Speedway | NBC Sports |
| Saturday, Aug. 15 | Richmond Raceway | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Aug. 23 | New Hampshire Motor Speedway | NBC Sports |
| Saturday, Aug. 29 | Daytona International Speedway | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Sept. 6 | Darlington Raceway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Sept. 13 | World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway* (St. Louis) | NBC Sports |
| Saturday, Sept. 19 | Bristol Motor Speedway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Sept. 27 | Kansas Speedway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Oct. 4 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Oct. 11 | Charlotte Roval* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Oct. 18 | Phoenix Raceway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Oct. 25 | Talladega Superspeedway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Nov. 1 | Martinsville Speedway* | NBC Sports |
| Sunday, Nov. 8 | (NASCAR Championship)* Homestead-Miami Speedway | NBC Sports |
*Denotes playoff race
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