| A jubilant Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke through for his | | | | The race to build a major speedway in the Windy |
| first Nextel Cup victory of last year's season, | | | | City took its first step towards becoming a reality |
| using a two-tire strategy and holding off Matt | | | | during an informal meeting between Indianapolis |
| Kenseth to win at Chicagoland Speedway. | | | | Motor Speedway President Tony George and Bill |
| "I was worried I was going to go winless this | | | | France in late 1995. |
| year," the relieved Earnhardt said after smoking | | | | The Motorsports Alliance, consisting of George, |
| the tires on his No. 8 Chevrolet and celebrating | | | | France, and home-remodeling magnate John |
| with his crew in the infield grass. "Now, let's go out | | | | Menard, was formed in the spring of 1996 and |
| and do it again, win some more." | | | | immediately began considering sites that summer. |
| Kenseth led 176 of the 267 laps but wound up | | | | The first effort to begin the project was to focus |
| second after choosing to change four tires and | | | | on a 500-acre plot of land less than 30 miles from |
| falling behind on his final pit stop in the USG | | | | downtown Chicago, near the Dupage County |
| Sheetrock 400. | | | | Airport. Faced with constructing a facility that |
| Earnhardt, NASCAR's most popular driver, has | | | | would be able to host NASCAR and the Indy |
| had a mostly miserable season and had little to | | | | Racing League on a small parcel of land, the trio |
| smile about until he turned in a third-place finish a | | | | decided that the extremely high price of real |
| week before at Daytona. He started 25th and | | | | estate would not fit properly into the budget. |
| spent most of the day hovering near the end of | | | | The Alliance was contacted by several |
| the top 10. | | | | communities that were interested in building the |
| The plan to build a superspeedway in the | | | | facility and even looked at sites as far west as |
| third-largest market in the nation had been | | | | Rochelle, before turning their attention to the small |
| rumored for years. Auto racing executives and | | | | farm community of Plano, about 70 miles west of |
| major-league sanctioning bodies had long | | | | Chicago, in the fall of 1997. |
| maintained that the untapped market of Chicago | | | | Get the latest NASCAR odds at WagerWeb. |
| was perhaps the most lucrative in the country. | | | | |