Relax, Chicagoland Speedway is not going anywhere, folks. After many speculated that the sale of the race track was imminent on Sunday, the city of Joliet, Illinois released a statement denying that the 1.5-mile Speedway is in jeopardy of being sold on Monday.
In the letter from Interim City Manager Steve Jones, he states that portions of the land that resides in overflow areas around the speedway may end up being sold off, but that nothing inside the race track itself will be impacted.
NASCAR owns the track and in the offseason, they reached a deal with Hillwood, which is a real estate development company. Upon reaching a partnership, Hillwood helped NASCAR zero in on target chunks of land at several race track locations to possibly look at doing something else with.
The rumors began swirling on Sunday, when Twitter user @Indys18Wheels posted photos of official City of Joliet paperwork which detailed a hearing about land plats on the Chicagoland Speedway premises that was supposed to take place back in April.
The future of Chicagoland Speedway looks to be in doubt altogether. This wouldn't hurt my feelings. The track has no character and is in the middle of nowhere. I like the D-shaped 1.5 mile design but there are too many in existence! pic.twitter.com/QqgPnQIa5C
— IndyCar Transporter (@Indys18Wheels) May 10, 2020
The rumors began to catch more traction when Jerry Jordan of KickinTheTires.net reported on Sunday evening, that the meeting had been pushed to July 16, 2020. However, Jordan incorrectly speculated that it appeared that the speedway would be bulldozed in favor of a “new complex.”
In the end, it appears that there will be no change in Chicagoland Speedway, and that the inclusion of the two plats within the map that landed inside the confines of the race track, were a mere formality to include all portions of the piece of land that one entity owned.
Ironically, Chicagoland Speedway is not the first race track incorrectly rumored to be disappearing during the 2020 season. Homestead-Miami Speedway had strong rumors of its demise in March, but those rumors were put to bed by Homestead’s mayor Steve Losner.
Sometimes, it’s just best to wait for all of the facts to be on the table before reporting of the demise of a race track.
