Abandoned Tracks: Chicago Motor Speedway
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- čas přidán 29. 11. 2022
- Before Chicagoland was a thing Illinois had another track located 15 minutes away from Chicago. How did Chicago Motor Speedway shut down after less than 5 years?
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“This young man driving the #99 truck. Remember the name: Kyle Busch!”
And we did remember that name.
For sure
No doubt!
Yup Doc saw some something with him it appears
Kyle Busch started with Ford and Roush Racing, in ASA and later NASCAR Craftsman Trucks. I met him at the ASA race at Illinana Raceway (that was televised on TNN) when he was in a Ford. He was traitor that moved to money launderer Rick Hendrick.
I grew up in midway and saw multiple races there.. Cicero had a horrible crooked mayor at the time and the residents complained constantly about the noise it was a mix of that and Chicagoland opening is what closed it.. there are many news articles from the time to back this.. it was a great place I enjoyed seeing the usac and asa run there
God damn crooked mayors.
0j
It's always those damn politicians and the Karens who complain about the noise: they ruin anything and everything fun, especially auto racing! Although, I honestly wonder how it was that Chicago Motor Speedway and Chicagoland were allowed/able to have their projects greenlit and in general coexist. I know that the two tracks were *intended* for different genres of racing, but, with the two projects ongoing or at least being planned simultaneously as well as the ongoing CART/IRL split and subsequent feud, how did track promoters and regulators in Cicero and Joliet manage to get both projects greenlighted and sell them to respective sanctioning bodies. I seriously don't understand how that happened, and especially how and why NASCAR could've brought the Trucks to CMS one year and then just packed up a couple years later and set up shop at Chicagoland, and especially to run the Midwest series in Cicero while everyone else competed at Chicagoland. Just a perfect storm of craziness and dumb ideas/decisions seems to be what doomed Chicago Motor Speedway to fail.
The Chicago Motor Speedway was also appearance in the videogame CART Fury for the Arcade and PS2, alongside with another forgotten speedway from Brazil, the Jacarepaguá circuit
Another CART Fury fan.
You, my friend, have good taste.
Jacarepagua is not forgotten
Fun Fact: Part of the Jacarepaguá circuit that was used by CART was also used for F1 when Rio held the Brazilian GP from 1981-89.
One of my favorites! Z.K.
Which today is the Olympic park that was fully used only in the Rio 2016 Olympics. Thanks to the thief Sergio Cabral (Governor of Rio de Janeiro at the time)
I was at Chicago Motor Speedway a few times, a track I've often just referred to as Cicero. One minor gripe I have is that, for where I am (just north of Chicago) it's a lot longer than 51 minutes to Chicagoland, it's closer to 90 minutes.
The date for the races there were ideal, and so was the location. I'm convinced the only reason it didn't stick around had a lot to do with SMI or ISC not owning the track, it was in a far better location for Chicago locals than it was for people outside of the city. If it stuck around, it would be a staple of the NASCAR calendar by now, and would be a playoff race, guarantee it. I don't think it was a failure on it's own merits -- it not being owned by SMI or ISC is what sealed it's fate. Look how long it took for Kentucky to be halfheartedly added to the NASCAR schedule -- same reason.
Besides that track would have been cool to use for Saturday night races. Just add lights around the track and you can get your street racers to duke it out on the paperclip speedway instead of on the streets. Of course, there has to be an inclination and a "want to" to go to the track for locals. Maybe host food trucks and hip hop shows to attract the street racing crowd. You take a majority of the street racers off Chicago streets for a night and you just solved a problem.
It was arguably a better location for most suburbanites too in terms of drive time. Problem was convincing them to go to Cicero with its rep
Take, say, the suburb of Skokie. It’s just over an hour to Chicagoland with no traffic. Cicero is half an hour.
I went to the races at Chicago Motor Speedway. The parking was atrocious in questionable neighborhoods. You could pick up hookers a couple blocks away. The track did not provide competitive racing and there wasn't enough room for a good fan zone. When Chicagoland Speedway opened it was a tremendous improvement over CMS. At one point 5 of the 10 closest IndyCar finishes were recorded at Chicagoland.
LOL couple blocks away? I was offered right by will call. Interesting neighborhood. I'm shocked Betty Lauren Maltese wasn't there shaking people down as they entered the track.
Well ya it was in Cicero
@@andrewr7982 well the southeast part of Cicero, I grew up in the northwester part, and it wasn't like that.
Pick up hookers a couple blocks away? Another reason why Nascar should have stayed.
@@thedirtybubble9613 Denny Hamlin says yes.
Oh yeah, I’ve been wanting to learn more about this track after it was featured in GriffDawg’s "One More Spark" series. Man, I wish that series had kept on going
If this becomes a new series I would suggest Texas World Speedway for Episode 2
I 2nd this. I wish that one could've been saved. Imagine the NextGens on a 2 mile track with steeper banking and faster than Michigan
4:23 And to think, Kyle Busch isn't even 40 yet. Wild.
Looks like a mini Homestead. Idk why but Motegi and WWTR also came to mind
More like a 1 mile Martinsville. Homestead is not a paperclip like track as the turns there are wide and sweeping.. If anything, Milwaukee resembled Homestead.
Chicagoland is so much fun.... I can't even tell you how excited I got when I was a kid, with both NASCAR and IRL/IndyCar was coming to Chicagoland.... my eyes were so laser-focused in.... NASCAR and IndyCar made such a huge mistake abandoning it, but to give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt, props to them for at least keeping the track in good condition. Excellent job Darian!
Request: Forgotten Tracks: Pikes Peak International Raceway....
Grew up in Chicago used to live in Cicero and in Berwyn went to every race that I could literally could walk to it love that track actually miss it
5:35 ah the Summer Sanitarium Tour. When Metallica rented out race tracks. Fun Fact, this was the last tour with Jason Newsted, the Bass Player from "...And Justice for All" until "S&M: Symphony & Metallica" And that tour saw James Hetfield get hurt, and at the Kentucky Speedway show, Artists like Jonathan Davis of Korn and Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian of System Of A Down filled in. It was cool seeing Alt and Nu Metal gods fill in for Thrash Metals goat.
Metalhead nerd rant over
Was Kid Rock part of that tour, too?
I had to do a double take in the video, wasnt expecting my favorite band to pop up there
I had to double check if I left my TV on Gran Turismo 7 in the background but it was your excellent song choice. 👌🔥🔥
Thank you for finally doing this track gang! 💙😊
Seemed like a fun track. Kind of a shame. Chicagoland ended up being pretty cookie-cutter in retrospect.
This man don't miss
I've always wondered what would've happened if, instead of building Chicagoland, NASCAR bought Chicago Motor Speedway and increased the banking like they did with Homestead.
I want to thank my mom for taking me to the races as a 6 yr old. I was always the first one up in the mornings telling her to get up. We used to live on 59th and cermak you were able to hear the echoes the engines To this day i have goosebumps.
Chicago Motor Speedway reminds me of Gateway but with more room. SMI should definitely create another Motor Speedway like Chicago Motor Speedway.
If you watched the 2000 and 2001 truck races at CMS you saw they had good tight racing. They had to downshift in the turns and then shift back into 4th gear down the straightaway and then hard on the brakes in the turns to downshift again.
@@thedirtybubble9613 I would like to see a Motor Speedway in Montana an it should be named Big Sky Motor Speedway and should be shaped like Chicago Motor speedway.
The defunct ARCA Truck Series ran a race at the track, actually on the same day as the 2001 Truck race. It was the biggest oval track they ever ran and the only time they ran on the same weekend with the NASCAR Trucks.
Would have been nice to see the Winston Cup race here
NASCAR had already decided they were going Cup Racing at Joliet around the same time the Cicero track was getting started. Not sure if Chicago Motor Speedway had permanent garages required by the Cup Series.
I was just thinking of this track! Man, I feel like it could've been a great venue for modern day Cup with its location.
This is just one of the many blunders of late stage CART. In 99', Cart made a rule change requiring teams to use speedway wings at intermediate sized race tracks. Due to monstrous power and downforce the cars were making at the time, speeds and aero forces were rising at tracks like Nazareth, Milkwaukee, etc. The thought was that if they took downforce out of the cars, cornering would be greatly reduced. In practice, this did lower speeds a bit, but the cars became super twitchy to drive. You combine that with an almost completely flat track, and it just became impossible to make a pass into the corner. I'm amused that Andretti is pissed at Tracy here, and then becomes his team owner a year later, those two deserved each other.
Tracy never drove for Andretti, Tracy left the team when Andretti bought the team from Barry Green and switch to the IRL for 2003.
I just watched a replay of an ASA race there the other day
Enjoyed this track and watched some good racing. NASCAR says no to a good track but yes to a street race that should never be done.
Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet is not a good track. A very boring cookie cutter design just like Kansas Speedway.
This track seems like a mixture of Milwaukee and New Hampshire. 1 mile long and flat like New Hampshire. Former horse racing track like Milwaukee.
Chicago Motor Speedway was still used as horse racing track. They poured dirt on top of the asphalt, which horse racers complained about.
The Red Tube start finish tower lives on at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet.
What! I had no idea there was another oval in Chicago, for a moment I was like, you must be meaning Chicagoland Speedway
i grew up in Berwyn literally 5 minutes from this track and you rarely heard racing coming from here, i think the lack of on track product didnt help with its demise
"Does he have a death wish? Is he trying to kill us both?" - PT's been consistent for decades😂
Fair, but Andretti’s been a crybaby for just as long
Michael has won 4 500s as an owner, while PT still whines and bitches about 2002.
I did the Richard Petty Driving Experience at his track in 1999.
depend on your location..Chicago was right across the street from Cicero... major oil refinery , tons of industry and 2 expressways kept them apart. Traffic, no large hotel complexes in the area and several unsavory neighborhoods you would have to pass through to get there.
Just a trivia clarification, it's next door to Chicago's west side. Albeit some really rough neighborhoods, and not the best location for transit. Central location to drive to though.
Right in the middle of a heavily populated town surely did it no good.
I only knew about this track from the movie Driven.
Chicago Motor Speedway should’ve had more success than it did.
Before they built the Chicago track a rack was going to be built in my area 180 miles west of Chicago. All the NIMBY folks stopped it. My friends dad was the developer but he couldn't get it approved...
NASCAR wanted to build in Sandwich, Illinois but local government and residents would not approve construction, so NASCAR went to Joliet instead where they were accepted with open arms.
I never knew where that clip of Kyle Busch running out of gas was from !!!!! Great video BFM
I went to 3 of the CART races there. It was very hard to pass and the racing wasn't very good.
The Chicago Motor Speedway was a gem of a race track because of how unique it was. It was a 1 mile Martinsville style paperclip race track. The problem with the track was it's location as it was in a very central location in the city. Not in the greatest location either the area around the track is sketchy. The people that lived around the track did not like the noise and parking was terrible from what I hear. What could have been for this track. Could have added lights to it and had Saturday night races for locals. And yes it could have been a neat track for even Nascar but it would have needed upgrades, tighter security and more parking spaces.
Local stock car racing would have been AWESOME, especially since both local tracks Santa Fe Speedway and Raceway Park had closed down shortly before this period. I lived in Cicero and raced and spectated both Santa Fe and Raceway regularly. The residents weren't putting up with it in Cicero and nobody that I knew were excited about the type of racing that they were doing. They GAVE tickets away to local businesses just to get people to come. That's how I wound up going to the ONE race that I attended- a FREE ticket.
If a driver as young as 16 years old can race about the same way Kyle Busch did in his first truck race at Chicago, you know keep it off the wall and other cars not make any mistakes, you know that driver has major talent
OH MY GOD I REMEMBER WATCHING ROWDY MONTHS AGO AND HEARD THIS
It looks like New Hampshire Motor Speedway
I remember FlyGuy showing us this track on one of his streams
1999: Paul Tracy is a menace
2022: Paul Tracy is STILL a menace
I went to both inaugural races at CMS and I thought it was awesome. I was so excited to finally have a track in my backyard
Do Mansfield Motorsports Park next! I live an hour east of the former track and attended a few truck series races there
I'm still salty about how this track met the fate of having a Walmart built on top of it. This was the only place I could literally call a home track.
Recommendations for nascar busts
1. Kelly Bires
2. Colin Braun
3. Casey Mears
4. Kyle Petty
5. Cole Whitt
Back when everyone was buying into cookie cutter tracks instead of building unique tracks.
This was interesting!
I don't remember this track, but is very similar to the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mile track where a friend and myself went to see the yearly Indycar races way back when.
Montoya having to on merit pass Luis Garcia is my abiding memory of the CART races there, and the whole what are they calling Driven now... discussions Paul/Parker had was entertaining.
Oh and the pace car spinning was another abiding memory too.
Replaced by a Walmart, love it
It took me half the video to realize that Chicago Motor Speedway wasn't owned by SMI....
I was at that first CART race in 1999. I thought it was cool just wrong place at the wrong time. Still have the event shirt and a Michael Andretti shirt that I bought that day.
Was totally there for Rockfest 2000. What a great lineup and Metallica of course crushed it!
The old CMS Start Stand still exists and is used regularly. Located at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet...2.5 miles west of Chicagoland Speedway.
Nice trivia👍
Now time will tell if the Chicago Street Circuit will meet the same fate
“Remember the name: Kyle Busch!”
And we did remember the name.
Can u do a vid on Islip motor speedway bc I’m from Long Island
The thing I loved about Islip was that because the track was so small, the last cars on the grid would know when to gas it because they could see the leaders in Turn 1. It was great.
My first indycar race was at Chicago motor speedway
The end of CMS was all but guaranteed when Chicagoland Speedway opened. BTW, CMS is a Walmart now. Warehouses keep opening up all around Chicagoland’s property and it may only be a question of when the wrecking ball comes for that track as well
Nothing will change with the Joliet track until NASCAR runs on Chicago streets, if that race is successful, bet on Joliet going away permanently, just hope Rt 66 gets sold to an owner that gives a fuck…current owner (ISC) certainly does not
I was at that race and went to many races in Joliet it's so sad that a Metropolitan Chicago area can't support a race track its sad.
I actually will be on a project today about 1/4 mi from Chicagoland Speedway today and live very close ( soon to be more warehouses) what a waste, we begged them as (fans) (the investors/NASCAR) not to put another cookie cutter track in, but to do something different. Well I can say I never missed a race, but when you don't listen to your base this is what will happen
I was at the original CART 1999 race. Had a good time.
Born in Berwyn grew up in Cicero all my life my fam would always tell me I'd have loved this place but too bad I was born in 2000
"remember the name, Kyle Bush" oh we definitely did
Jeez, i remember being excited as a child about this new speedway along with Kansas at the time. Can't believe it's shuddered already. Didn't even last a full generation.
Edit: Didn't realize this is a different track. Kept seeing it referred as Chicagoland before watching the video.
I saw the Mid America Series there, which I believe was the first stock car event held at Chicago Motor Speedway. The same day companion event was a sprint car race that Ryan Newman competed in before he moved up to NASCAR. Oddly, this place wanted to charge me for parking which tells me the people running Chicago Motor Speedway did not know what they are doing. I was never charged to park at any other race track I attended. I got into an argument with Connie Kowal about that. I also went to both ASA races and the first NASCAR Truck Series race but I missed the 2nd NASCAR Truck race due to a medical problem. However I watched the 2nd NASCAR Truck Race at home on ESPN. I could not believe how small the turnout was. Just a few fans sitting near the start-finish line. ESPN intentionally would not direct the cameras to the seating area to hide the small turnout. I heard that horse racers complained about the hard asphalt surface (used for auto racing) just a few inches below the dirt. This track was located in not a good area where English isn't spoken with a corrupt mayor: Betty Loren Maltese.
I think it would be hosting cup races if it was still open
That I a pretty crazy birth and death video.. of a race track
Cool track. Went a few times. Almost got run over by ganassi on a pit cart 😆 worst part was parking. There hardly was any. Basically park on the street in a sketchy neighborhood and walk a few blocks to the track. Not ideal
You need to do Riverside and Ontario, both had interesting histories:
RIR: opening weekend and closing weekend resulted in fatal accidents
OMS $25.5 million to build only to close in 1980 (and it was a twin to Indy)
Ontario motor speedway, Michigan International speedway, and Texas World speedway (College station Texas) we're actually really very close to being the same track. When Ontario motor speedway opened Evel Knievel was brought in to do a motorcycle jump before the opening race. The backdrop for the first race at Ontario was actually used in the filming of the Evel Knievel movie in 1971.
@@dand3975 MIS and TWS were owned by the same company at one time (American Raceways, they also had Trenton, Riverside and Atlanta), but OMS was different, it was a 2.5-mile replica of Indianapolis built for the price mentioned, but the track was too far ahead of its time
Jason Trew When I was young, I had a "Sizzlers" track fashioned after Ontario. Ah, the memories
Nice work. We should do a collab on a vid like this sometime.
Driven (2001) was filmed in this track
That’s actually nuts
And at Motegi in Japan as well
This track had a huge potential and great location. Chicagoans love racing. This track could have helped move the street racing to the track. I wanted to race on or spectate at this track. The track was not managed well. I looked for races to watch or racing classes to take. There was nothing except the big names. Now short tracks are making a comeback and this track is a Walmart.
Not a great location. Far away from expressways, in a bad neighborhood where English is not spoken. Plus, a corrupt Mayor at the time: Betty Loren Maltese.
@@gregoryleo4640a few blocks from on and off ramps to the Stevenson Expressway is not close to an expressway???
@@tylerkochman1007 AND Cicero ain't all THAT bad, especially 25 years ago. About 1.5 miles to I-55 and about 3 miles to I-290. Just a few minutes to either expressway.
How have I never heard of this track
I remember that!
I am beginning to think also you could write the obituary for Chicagoland Speedway
As it relates to CART's TV deal in 2002, in addition to CBS, CART also had to pay Speed (now FS1) to air races. The races on Speed did better in terms of ratings than the CBS telecasts but were way behind the network's NASCAR related programming, Barrett Jackson & even F1 (which was absolutely dominated by Michael Schumacher that year) in terms of popularity.
They actually got Target to sponsor a race.
Target was heavily involved with the CART Series at the time. Plus there was a Target store in Cicero near Sportsman Park / Chicago Motor Speedway.
Chip Ganassi was part owner of the track, and his CART teams were already sponsored by Target. Plus, there is a Target close to Sportsman Park / Chicago Motor Speedway.
"Typical Paul Tracy driving" 2:40
That aged well
Chicago Motor Speedway is like a rip-off of Milwaukee Mile.
Not really. Its more like a paper clip than milwaukee. Longer straights and tighter corners
1 mile Martinsville.
I remember this track
Ha! I was at the festival that the show footage was taken from. Metallica, Kid Rock and STP. Barenaked Ladies was supposed to be on the card too but they bailed. What a loss. Flinging mouse pads at small national acts. Good times. No water but rubber mouse pads were just fine...
4:18 we remembered the name
The track in Joliet, Chicagoland speedway is gonna go bye bye soon as well. It’s gonna be torn down and warehouses will take it spot.
I went to the first CART race in 1999. I was a big CART fan and traveled from southeast Pennsylvania to races at Nazareth, Cleveland, Kentucky and Michigan for several years. The inaugural seemed to be a Can't Miss race and that turned out not to be true. There was no nearby parking and fans had to park miles away and take shuttle busses to the track. The surrounding area was like a war zone and to avoid staying at questionable dives like Motel 6, I paid through the roof to stay at a decent ( but safe) hotel in downtown Chicago 20 miles away. Lastly, the racing was terrible. It was a function of a flat track with a one lane groove, similar to what Nazareth had become ( and whose fate also died because fans stop coming to see processional races). There were no passes at the front half of the field that I can remember and even Montoya got stuck for laps trying to pass lapped traffic. I did not return in 2000 and neither did a lot of people.
I'd estimate CART race attendance was down by 1/4 in 2000, 1/2 by 2001, and 3/4 by 2002, the last race. We attended an ASA race in 2000 and we easily parked across the street from the track. If the place was 1/10th full for ASA I'd be amazed. I realized the track wasn't long for the world with attendance like that. In 2002 we parked right by the grandstands less than two hours before the race.
I heard a rumor from a fellow connected with Target that they handed out lots of freebie tickets for the 1999 race. Just a rumor, but Marlboro used to hand out free tickets to Marlboro smokers (we scored a pair to IndyCar at Chicagoland once), so, who knows?
@@mmack647 I'm from Cicero and my friends and myself were only interested in drag racing and stock car racing. Nobody that I knew was interested in the type of racing that was taking place at Chicago Motor Speedway. We only went to one race because we had free tickets😁and weren't impressed.
Short lifespan in an area that could've had potential.
The track in Cicero is based on Milwaukee. 1-mile, flat corners.
Both facilities started out as horse racing tracks.
Mine is my home track in kentucky
CMS was a kind in the bad area I hard parking was dangerous also was the whole dam town full of corruption also i think Chicagoland is also played a part in CMS's death, not just cart's demise I think was a combo of all 3
Do a segment on Kentucky Speedway.
Sad that they are both abandoned
I had to laugh when they said inb2001 nascar was getting more popular - I would argue this was the year when it's best yrs were in the rear view mirror
Chicago logic: tear down the speedway and do a street circuit
Marty Robbins
Track sucked at first, but as the years went by and as of late we're some of the best races of the year!!! They stopped going there when the track was at its best
It’s my local Walmart now 😂
Milwaukee mile video? All the greats raced there yet all it gets now is arca
They’re actually getting a truck race next year on August 27th.
@@NGPG that is right I forgot