Chicagoland to host Chase opening race
Chicagoland Speedway officials announced Monday that they are the lucky venue scheduled to host the opening race of the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. The Chase will kick off in September.
Chicagoland Speedway as well as NASCAR officials were in attendance at the Charlotte, North Carolina, press conference. It had been rumoured since Friday that Chicagoland would get the opening Chase race, but speculations were put to rest Monday.
"I can't think of a better market than Chicago and the Chicagoland area to kick off NASCAR's version of the playoffs," said track president Craig Rust. Also in attendance at the news conference was series points leader Kevin Havrick and David Reutimann, the defending race winner.
Since its inception in 2004, the New Hampshire Speedway had been the host of the opening race. NASCAR shuffled the schedule for the 2011 season on several of their other Series races, and the New Hampshire race is expected to take place at a later date, probably as the Chase’s second race location, previously held at the Dover International Speedway.
Since it first began hosting Cup races in 2001, Chicagoland has hosted a race on every weekend of July. Kentucky Motor Speedway is expected to receive the July race weekend. Kentucky officials have a news conference scheduled for Tuesday to announce that they will be hosting their first Cup series race for the 2011 season, at which point the exact dates will be revealed.
Kansas Speedway has also called a press conference for Tuesday.The track is expected to be announcing the addition of a second race weekend most likely the weekend of 5 June.
The Chase is a 10-race series and Chicagoland is the second largest media market amongst tracks. Their biggest challenge in hosting the Sunday afternoon race will be competing with NFL’s Chicago Bears, whose games also fall on Sunday afternoons in September.
But Rust isn’t going to back down from a challenge, "You are going to compete with somebody," he said. "You can't run from it. You have to get out there and compete, and we think by opening the Chase, this makes us a stronger event.”
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