Lost Chicago Motor Speedway Revealed On Google Earth
NASCAR is leaving Chicago in 2026 as it moves its annual race from Millennium Park back to Chicagoland Speedway, where it last raced in 2019.
The 1.5-mile oval is about an hour’s drive from the Loop in the city of of Joliet, but there used to be an oval racing track much closer to The Windy City.
The Chicago Motor Speedway was a short-lived one-mile oval in Cicero that has an interesting story. It’s no longer there, but its history has been preserved in Google Earth.
1999
The track was built on the grounds of the Sportsman’s Park horse racing track, which was adjacent to the similarly sized Hawthorne Race Course. Sportsman’s Park originally opened as a dog racing track in the 1920s and was reputed to be a favorite haunt of Al Capone’s, before it shifted to horse racing.
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With the rise in popularity of auto racing in the 1990s, Chip Ganassi teamed up with the Bidwill family in 1998 to add a paved auto racing track to the facility and seating for 67,000. Construction was completed the following year and hosted a Champ Car race that was won by Ganassi driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Horse racing continued on a dirt infield track, but fans complained about the view with the auto racing walls and fencing. Unfortunately for the partnership, construction began on Chicagoland Speedway the same year.
2002
After hosting four Champ Car races and NASCAR Truck Series races in 2000 and 2001, it became clear that Chicagoland was the big attraction in the area and the Chicago Motor Speedway partnership was dissolved. It lives on in the 2001 Sylvester Stallone movie “Driven” which features racing scenes shot at the track.
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2007
Cicero ended up buying the track with plans to redevelop the land and demolished the main grandstands, but initially left the track surface in place. It was still there in 2007.
2010
Work on tearing down the final structures and track surface began in 2009 and it was later announced that Wirtz Beverage would open a liquor distribution center on part of the property.
2013
The Wirtz Beverage headquarters building opened in 2012 next to the remnants of the eastern end of the torn-up track, which was then slated for a Walmart Supercenter.
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