Consolidation and Covid-19 are to blame for a large reduction in staff at Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway.  The impacted employees were notified personally earlier this morning.

Chicagoland Speedway isn’t the only track affected by this new organizational model that was created by NASCAR after its merger with ISC.   NASCAR will now operate under a more centralized organizational structure for select functional areas, while maintaining some of the traditional responsibilities at the local level, such as facility operations and key management positions.

NASCAR, like many other businesses, has been hit hard by COVID and the pandemic could cost Joliet it’s race this year.  Four races were to be run June 18-21 but with Illinois still on lockdown and no end in sight, those dates are probably out.  That, and NASCAR wants to keep travel to a minimum and use tracks geographically close to each other and within driving distance so an announcement could be made in a matter of days announcing whether or not a race will take place in Joliet this year.

NASCAR will return to racing on May 17th at the Darlington Raceway.