A raceway in Madison was to be ‘sold for scrap.’ Now it will host a NASCAR Cup race.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday with the cost of the state’s sponsorship.
Not long after St. Louis native and former race car driver Curtis Francois bought a crumbling raceway in southwestern Illinois a decade ago, he met with local leaders for lunch.
The track was “literally within a week of being sold to scrap,” said state Rep. Jay Hoffman of Swansea.
But Francois said he wanted to make the raceway a destination for racing fans. After years of renovations, Francois announced the World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison will host one of the country’s top racing series.
The NASCAR Cup Series festivities from June 3-5 are expected to bring more than 80,000 fans and an estimated $60 million economic impact.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a press conference Monday that Illinois’ tourism bureau will sponsor the race, named the Enjoy Illinois 300. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity paid $700,000 for the sponsorship.
“It’s unbelievable in 10 years, what’s really happened here,” Francois said. “I did not expect to be announcing that Illinois would be the title sponsor of our cup race. I was just happy to open the doors and get the weeds out of the parking lot.”
Opening the raceway took years of private investment and economic development cooperation between officials from Madison, St. Clair County and the state.
Formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park, technology services company World Wide Technology bought naming rights to the raceway in 2019. More than $40 million in renovations are still underway as the NASCAR Cup approaches. Improvements have been made to camping sites, a fan entertainment area and a viewing tower.
The raceway sits within one of Madison’s tax increment financing districts, or TIF district. The special taxing districts allow public financing for redevelopment in blighted areas.
The Gateway TIF District was established in 1996, and has since collected more than $24.2 million in property taxes, according to state data. In fiscal year 2019, the most recent year for which a TIF report was available, the district generated $986,408. The city spent nearly $998,000 that year from the district fund, including $317,253 at the raceway for property assembly, or buying smaller pieces of land to create a larger parcel.
TIF reports from previous years were not immediately available.
In October, Francois and Hoffman took a trip to Kansas City with other local officials to learn about the Kansas Speedway in preparation for the NASCAR series. The speedway has hosted a cup race for the past 20 years, Hoffman wrote in a letter to BND readers last year.
“Our Kansas hosts detailed how important collaboration at the municipal, county and state level has been to their success. Illinois promises to do the same,” Hoffman wrote.
The World Wide Technology Raceway hosts series from America’s three race sanctioning bodies — NASCAR, INDYCAR and NHRA. It hosts more than 250 events annually and includes a 1/4-mile drag strip, a 1.25-mile speedway, a 2-mile road course and a karting facility.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 3:21 PM.
