Chicagoland gets early thumbs-up as drivers get their first look at an old friend

Ryan Blaney enjoyed the two days he spent in Joliet, Illinois, earlier this week as he reunited with Chicagoland Speedway.

“I think I made 625 laps around that place,” Blaney said. “So, if I’m not ready when we go back, we should have made 700 (laps), I guess.”

Blaney was the Ford representative at the Goodyear tire test in preparation of the July 4 race weekend. Kyle Larson was there for Chevrolet and Denny Hamlin for Toyota. There were also two drivers there representing the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: Justin Allgaier (Chevrolet) and Brandon Jones (Toyota).

“It was pretty worn out, rough, which is good,” Blaney said of the facility. “I really enjoyed it, and the seams there are bigger than I remember in between the lanes, which is good. Not like Fontana seams, but they’re really close to it. But I think we’re going to use all of it. We’re going to use the whole racetrack.

“The tires are going to wear out pretty good, especially when we go there in July and it’s going to be hot. So, yeah, I think it’s going to put on a heck of a race. … It was a good surface. I thought it was great. And the facility looked fantastic. So, I’m excited to get back there.”

Chicagoland was once lauded as one of the best intermediate tracks on the schedule. But it has not hosted a NASCAR race since 2019.

Larson was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the facility. He didn’t know what to expect driving in on the first day, Tuesday, and while he didn’t go out of his way to explore, he could look around and see how well things had stood the test of time.

“It was fun. It was cool just to be back,” Larson said. “The facility was in a lot better shape than I thought it would be in; the track and the garage area and all that were in better shape (than I thought). The track itself kind of reminded me of what it was – super rough, huge dip into (Turn) 1, and then a big bump in the center of (Turns) 3 and 4. So, if you missed it by a few feet, you’d bottom out and almost crash. Then it was just so fast-paced that I never worked up, so I don’t really know what the other lanes were like, but I imagine it’s really rough.

“It was grippier and faster than I thought it might be, but it also is going to be a million degrees when we go back, so it’ll probably slow down quite a bit. It was fun, it was cool, and I thought we learned a lot about our race car.”

Chicagoland was among the most popular tracks with the drivers, but that was a while ago. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Larson was involved in what might be the most memorable finish that has come out of Chicagoland Speedway. It happened in 2018 when he and Kyle Busch traded blows, with Larson being sent sideways through the corners and Busch taunting the fans afterward.

There will be high expectations when the series returns in a few months. In addition to seeing how the seventh-generation race car, which usually performs well on intermediate tracks, does on the rough Chicagoland surface.

“I think that’s what will make it fun,” Larson said. “I think in practice you’re all going to run a similar line around the bottom and find a comfortable spot, but once you get racing and have restarts and stuff, you’re going to be forced to be in some areas that you haven’t been in, and it’s going to cause some chaos, probably, and some uncertainty and just confidence behind the wheel. So, I think that always makes for fun racing, and guys will be learning the whole race the whole weekend.

“Yeah, it’s going to be fun. Then, as you go back in the future, drivers and teams will dial it in even more, and then the racing could look a little different. … I thought it was good and edgy and all the things that make for fun racing.”

Hamlin, meanwhile, has the most experience at Chicagoland among his fellow testing companions. And that includes a 2015 race win.

“I thought that it was very similar to what it was years and years ago,” Hamlin said. “Not a whole lot has changed. Just learned how to navigate some of the bumps around there. I think that really is going to be the biggest advantage that probably the three of us have is that it took hours and hours to really understand the way to get around there correctly with the bumps. It’s just very similar.

“But one of the disadvantages is we didn’t really run the real racing line. We had to run around the bottom because that’s how the tire tests usually are. So, I agree with the other two guys that said the line is going to move up all over the place. So, I think it’s going to be a very racy surface. Certainly got some grass to cut and paint to put on that thing to dress it up, but overall, it’s probably going to put on a great race.”