Chicagoland expected to be 'great race' in its NASCAR return

Christopher Bell thought he knew what to expect when showing up at Chicagoland Speedway. Then he pulled his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out on the track and realized otherwise.

“It was rough,” said Bell with emphasis on each word. “It was probably rougher than I expected.”

Well, the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois, has been sitting dormant for seven years. It grew weeds and aged during that time, adding to its many characteristics, such as bumps, seams, crevices, areas of roughness that give way to smoothness and so on.

Bell had taken in feedback from teammate Denny Hamlin coming into the week, as Hamlin was one of three drivers who did the Goodyear tire test in April, and yet practice still threw Bell for a loop.

“I went out there on run one, lap one, and I was like, ‘Holy smokes,’” said Bell. “Nothing will do justice to you guys for how rough it is inside these race cars. What we found out over the course of the Next Gen car is that it does really well on smooth tracks, but the bumps and the rough racetracks are very hard and challenging for the crew chiefs and the drivers because you need that thing as low as you can get it. But the bumps will affect that.

“It’s going to be a very challenging race.”

The race car is one of the reasons Sunday has been a highly anticipated race since Chicagoland was added back onto the schedule. Or since the Next Gen car was introduced and quickly took to intermediate racetracks, particularly worn-out ones. Next Gen has produced multiple highlight reels from intermediate races.

Chicagoland is already a lauded, character-filled intermediate facility. The most notable and most recent highlight comes from the 2018 battle between Kyle Larson and the late Kyle Busch. It has left many clamoring to see what type of race would take place there.

Tyler Reddick was a driver taken aback after a 50-minute practice session on Friday. The driver from 23XI Racing told TNT Sports that Chicagoland “didn’t act” like an old surface, and he felt like the tire fall-off was flat. It was not as much as expected or predicted.

“I guess I just walked away from practice scratching my head a bit,” Reddick further explained Saturday. “I thought there was going to be more fall off. The track has been dormant for a while, but I just thought the tires would wear out more than they did.”

The comments made Joey Logano laugh and respond about his practice experience, “[Reddick] might have had a little more grip; I was slipping and sliding around.

“It still feels a lot like what it was years ago. The bumps in these cars, though, are way worse. You watch O’Reilly practice, and they kind of go boop over the bumps, kind of like if you watch the old races here with the old cars. But the bumps in the Next Gen car … it’s solid. The bumps are huge here.”

So what show will the drivers put on on Sunday? It is a 400.5 mile, 267 lap event.

“I think it’s going to be a great race, and when I use the term challenging, that’s what we all want,” Bell said. “That’s what you guys want; that’s what the drivers want; that’s what the fans want, because we’re not locked down like slot cars. I would imagine we’re going to see accidents.

“The bump in Turn 1 makes the car really loose. The bump in Turn 4 jars it really bad, and everybody has basically been in clean air by themselves. Whenever you get into disturbed air in the back in traffic and cross those bumps, I’m sure there is going to be some chaos.”