NASCAR has shown a willingness to shake up the schedule over the last few seasons. Ryan Blaney believes this will continue, and he hopes it will include a return to Chicagoland Speedway.
"They've proven that they can kind of do it anywhere if you put the resources and the time in it," Blaney said on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. "You can make a street course. You can go to different road courses that are already existing.
"Maybe even some tracks that we used to go to that we don't go to anymore, like a Chicago - the Joliet racetrack. My name is in the bucket for that. I'd like to see that come back because I think it would be a great racetrack. It always was."
Chicagoland Speedway, the 1.5-mile paved track located outside of Chicago, was a mainstay on the NASCAR schedule from the early 2000s on. It made its Cup Series debut in 2001 as Kevin Harvick won, and then it returned every season for nearly two decades.
The last race at the Illinois track was in 2019. Alex Bowman led 88 laps in the No. 88, and he scored his first career win at NASCAR's top level.
Chicagoland was set to return for the 2020 season to host the Father's Day weekend race (June 21, 2020). However, COVID-19 put the season on hold for 10 weeks and then forced NASCAR to make major changes.
The majority of the altered season featured teams racing within a few hours of Charlotte, the sport's hub. This eliminated the need for hotels and knocked the 1.5-mile track off the schedule.
When NASCAR released the 2021 schedule, Chicagoland was nowhere to be found. This remained the case in 2022. The 2023 season featured NASCAR heading to the streets of Chicago instead of the intermediate track in Joliet.
This year marks the final event of the three-year deal between NASCAR and the Windy City. No one yet knows if the top two series will return for a fourth street course race.
If NASCAR chooses to head elsewhere for another street race, this could leave some Midwest fans longing for a race weekend. Bringing the Cup Series back to Chicagoland could alleviate these concerns.
"They are God. They can choose where they go," Blaney said about NASCAR. "They set the schedule. They can work with these cities and things like that to figure out where can we bring our show pretty much to a city near you.
"I think they can do it. I don't know all of the technical insights. I'm sure it's hell. I just go where they tell me to go and I race, but I'd love to personally -- if we're naming places -- I'd love to see Joliet come back."