JOLIET, Ill. — Like most other mile-and-a-half racetracks, two-time and defending NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson loves Chicagoland Speedway.

And even though NASCAR has not raced at the suburban Joliet, Ill. tri-oval since 2019, Larson is bound and determined to finish one spot higher than the last two times he raced there. Yung Money finished runner-up in 2018 and 2019 before NASCAR took the race away and eventually returned to the Windy City from 2023-2025 for three straight street course events in downtown Chicago (during which Larson managed just one top-10 showing).

But when NASCAR Cup returns to Chicagoland Speedway (aka CLS for short) on July 5, one day after celebrating our nation’s 250 anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Larson wants to do his patriotic duty by finally breaking through to victory lane – and giving himself an early 34 birthday present (July 31).

“It feels great to be back,” Larson told EssentiallySports earlier this week during a two-day Goodyear tire test at CLS. “It was just cool to get out there and try to kind of remember what it was like.

“It hasn’t really been that long, I feel like, since we’ve been here. But I don’t know, you’ve raced so much between then and now that I didn’t really remember a whole lot of the track other than just a big bump in (turn) one and some bumps in (turns) three and four and those are all still there.

“But yeah, it’s just cool. It’s really fast too, a lot faster pace than what I guess I kind of remember the old car (Gen 6) being here. We’re on the throttle quite a bit, but it’s also not as hot as what it was the last times we were here, which it’ll be hot when we come back. So the pace should slow down.

“It’s in much better shape than I expected it to be in, you know? And I think with some sponsor banners outside the catch fences there and a little bit of touch-up paint, it’s not far off from looking like it should be. Yeah, it looks great. The track surface itself, I think, too, is in a better place than I expected it to be, which also, again, I’m sure they’ve had to pull weeds and things like that, but, yeah, it looks good.”

Larson has four top-fives and one top-ten in six career NASCAR Cup Starts at Chicagoland Speedway

Larson has six career Cup starts at CLS, with four finishes in the top five and one other in the top 10. He was a bit more successful driving an Xfinity car at CLS: in eight starts, he has one win and five top-five finishes.

“I won an Xfinity race here and that battle with Kyle Busch was cool,” Larson recalled. “I’ve tried to watch old film back and that’s obviously the one that pops up. You watch that quite a bit, and yeah, (there’s) a lot of fond memories of just good battles.”

Larson typically watches the last few of his races at a track to get ready, but Chicagoland Speedway hasn’t been on the schedule since 2019, so he has to go way back. Still, the track surface remains similar to the last Cup outing it held on June 30, 2019, where Larson lost by one spot and just over a half-second to a driver with whom he would eventually become teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, namely Alex Bowman.

And Larson relishes racing on older tracks that have “character” such as CLS. That’s why he did film study before coming for the tire test.

“I was more just trying to get out of it seeing what lines we were running,” the Elk Grove, California native said. “We could run kind of everywhere and I didn’t really remember that you could run all lanes. So, you know, it’s aged and gotten rougher, I’m sure since then. The bumps in three and four are really, really rough. So I don’t know how much we’ll be able to move. I’m sure we’ll eventually move around, but like it’s hard right now as the pace is so fast to like move around and commit.

“The little bit I’ve moved up just a few times in three and four, like one lane, I bottomed out. So it’s pretty sketchy, but yeah, just trying to find lanes that you think your car can maybe go through will be beneficial.”

He then added with a chuckle, “What do you want, I mean, this is a tire test.”

Weather wasn’t an Issue for the tire test, but it could be totally Different On Race Weekend

The weather for the tire test was relatively cool – primarily in the 60s and low 70s – with Tuesday’s first day of testing cut short by rain. Wednesday’s test was more conducive for the five teams that took part: Cup drivers Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Blaney, and O’Reilly Auto Parts drivers Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones.

But come race weekend, including the July 4 O’Reilly classic and the July 5 Cup main event, temperatures in Chicago are likely to be in the high 80s and low-to-mid 90s – with the ever-present likelihood of rain – which means crew chiefs, drivers, and team engineers can throw out much of the data they acquired earlier this week.

Still, there’s enough data that will be beneficial, Larson said.

“The tire that we’re going to run is like the same tire we’ve been running everywhere, I feel like,” Larson said. “So at least that’s nice, you know, there’s no unknowns. But yeah, again, I mean the conditions are quite a bit different than what we’ll see here in July. It’s going to be a thousand degrees outside, which will be better, I think. We’ll lay more rubber into the surface.

“We’ll be able to be off the throttle and make tires live longer and you’ll be able to move around the track more as the pace slows down. So yeah, I feel like the tire that we have, we’ve ran through a handful of different tires that are similar but a little bit different. But they’re all so close, it’s hard to tell.”

Fans Are Excited to Have NASCAR Coming Back to Chicagoland Speedway

One promising aspect of the tire test was on Tuesday, the only day the grandstands were open to the public for free. Roughly a couple thousand fans showed up to watch the action and cheer on the drivers, something Larson appreciated.

“Seeing the crowd in the stands just for practice was awesome,” he said. “So I would imagine the crowd will be big for (July’s race) this first time back. And hopefully we’ll continue to come back and we can put on a good show.”

And even though there were only five drivers in total in attendance for the test, and just three from the Cup ranks, Larson believed the several hours logged on both days would prove to be beneficial to themselves as well as their respective teammates when data is shared.

“In a world where there’s little practice time, you get two extra days out here, especially when you haven’t been here in seven years,” Larson said. “I think it’s going to be extremely valuable for the three of us here (Larson, Blaney and Hamlin).

“Even though we have teammates and stuff that are going to get to look at all of our data and whatnot, I think still getting to be here actually on the track, playing around with little things behind the wheel or driving style stuff, like it’s all beneficial. This is a very high level of commitment track.

“I’m guessing we’ll have maybe 50 minutes of practice (in the July weekend) and that’s nothing. It’ll be hard in that 50 minutes for people to get to where our comfort level is after two days, so I think that’ll be a definite benefit for the three of us.”

When asked about NBA Hall of Famer and 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan’s impact on Chicago, with six NBA championships as a player, and how his team is off to five wins in the first nine races this season, Larson had somewhat mixed emotions.

“I’m sure it’s opening the sport and putting more eyes on it when his team is winning, so I think that’s a positive,” Larson said. “Even the lawsuit throughout the offseason and all that was messy, but I think overall it’s a very positive thing for the sport and all of that. He’s had an amazing impact on it.

Then Larson, who is winless heading into this weekend’s Cup race at Talladega, added with a deadpan, “I just would like to see them not win it all the time.”

While Larson will miss the Chicago Street Race, he’s Happy there are so many race fans in the Chicago Area

Larson called the three years of street races in downtown Chicago among his favorite races on the Cup schedule. But whether racing on the streets of the Windy City or on its suburban oval, just being in the area is good news to Larson.

“This area has a lot of race fans, a lot of dirt racing fans, just a lot of race fans in general,” he said. “I think that’s great. And I think keeping whether it’s Chicagoland or the street race, this region is good for the sport.

“So, yeah, I think it’s a completely raceable facility and I’m excited to get here in a couple months. It’s not only important to come back to this track, but it’s also a great place to come back to have a little bit of fun.

“Getting to race on holidays is always a good thing. There’s always eyes on it because everybody, if they’re not at the track, they’re either at home, hanging out with their families, celebrating our country, but also celebrating while watching NASCAR. It’s a big date, so hopefully we can do a good job that weekend and win one that we’ll always remember.”