June 1, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Racing is Sold Out

World Wide Technology Raceway’s inaugural NASCAR Cup race—the Enjoy Illinois 300—is sold out.

Over 10 years in the making, WWTR’s ‘It takes a village’ approach paid off with a coveted Cup date.

More than 60,000 race fans will be able to witness stock car’s top tier at the 1.25-mile track along with a variety of activities and concerts at the venue throughout the weekend.

“We knew our fans were hungry for a NASCAR Cup Series race and the response since the announcement in September has been tremendous,” said Curtis Francois, Owner and CEO of World Wide Technology Raceway. “With world-class racing, live entertainment and endless fun on the Midway, this Sunday will bring lasting memories for many people and I can’t wait to greet them alongside our sponsor and corporate partners who have helped make this all possible.”

Campgrounds open on Wednesday. Richard Petty will kick off on-track activities on Friday, followed by Cup practice at 4 p.m.The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes to the track for practice at 5, followed by qualifying for the Toyota 200.

“I think Gateway is going to be a great race,” said Joey Logano, who won the inaugural event at the L.A. Coliseum in February. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, but I’ve been watching the truck races there, and it seems like a track where you’ve got Turns 1 and 2 that are high-banked, really sharp. If they’re shifting in a truck, they’re definitely going to be shifting in a Cup car now with the five speeds, and then you’ve got the sweeping, long (Turns) 3 and 4–flat, but I think you’ve got some tire wear there.  
 
“You’ve got an older surface. You’ve got some bumps. You’ve got some character in it, so I think it’s going to be a great race. You look at Nashville last year, it ran nothing like we thought it would.  We thought it was going to be everybody stuck on the bottom and the race won’t be that good and then we get there and everyone is running way high on the racetrack, so I don’t think it’s easy to predict how the race is going to be, but, at the same time, I think it’s going to be good.”

On Wednesday, NASCAR announced a change to the stage lengths for the truck race to Laps 35/70/160. Cup stages remain 45/140/240.

Sheldon Creed, who graduated to the Xfinity Series this season, won the last two truck races at WWTR. Ross Chastain is the most recent current Cup driver to win a truck race at the track in 2019. Kevin Harvick, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell and Justin Haley have all won truck races at the track formerly known as Gateway. Harvick also won two Xfinity Series races when NASCAR’s Triple-A tour competed at the track from 1997 to 2010. Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski have also won at the Madison, Ill., oval just minutes from downtown St. Louis.

Logano applauds NASCAR for expanding its reach to different markets.

“What we’ve seen in our sport here recently is when we go back to a racetrack or to a new racetrack at any point, it brings so many new fans to them,” Logano added. “Not everyone can travel three hours, six hours, 10 hours to a race. That’s a big commitment if you think about it, so bringing races to new markets, to fans that don’t typically get to go, ‘Hey, it’s Sunday afternoon, let’s go to watch a race.’  

“That’s cool, especially for a first-time fan that maybe isn’t as passionate about it quite yet because they haven’t been to one. It’s huge to grow our sport and so I think NASCAR has recognized that over the last couple of years. We’ve all seen the success of Road America and Nashville last year and what can be with obviously going to Gateway.”

Unfortunately, for fans that were hoping for walk-up seats, the WWTR release stated that there are no tickets available onsite or general admission options for Sunday. Tickets are still available for Friday and Saturday’s activities. Parking passes must be purchased online prior to arrival at wwtraceway.com. 

Fans with tickets can attend the Confluence Festival: Crossroads of Concert & Community. Kicking off on Friday, the three-day festival features over 30 bands on five stages with St. Louis’ own Nelly headlining the event along with Old Dominion, Cole Swindell, Jimmie Allen, Kameron Marlowe, Dee Jay Silver and Tim Dugger.