MADISON, Ill. — World Wide Technology Raceway will play host to its first NASCAR Cup Series playoff as the Enjoy Illinois 300, traditionally held in June, moves to September, and will see the return of the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025.
The Enjoy Illinois 300 is the second of 10 playoff races and the only Cup Series event to be contested on a 1.25-mile oval.
The Cup Series playoffs kick off Aug. 31, with the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina before heading to WWT Raceway on Sept. 7.
“We can’t thank NASCAR enough for rewarding this tremendous sports market with a race of this magnitude. The St. Louis region is accustomed to great playoff event memories with the Blues, Cardinals and other sports teams over the years and now we can finally add NASCAR to that esteemed list,” said raceway owner and CEO Curtis Francois.
The remaining eight playoff races will take place at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 13, New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 21, Kansas Speedway on Sept. 28, Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 5, Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 12, Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 19, Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26 and Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2.
Next year marks the fourth Cup Series race held at WWT Raceway. Joey Logano and Kyle Busch won the 2022 and 2023 races, respectively, in overtime by less than .7 of a second.
Austin Cindric won the race this past June after his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney ran out of fuel approaching the final lap.
“(WWT Raceway’s) uniqueness has always provided some great racing, and it is getting ready to get ramped up with the playoff intensity and a Cup championship at stake,” Francois said.
Sixteen drivers qualify for the Cup Series playoffs through their performance in the first 26 regular-season races. The playoff races, however, will have a full field of drivers.
The Cup Series playoffs is made up of four rounds — the opening Round of 16, Round of 12, Round of 8 and finally the Championship 4 Round. The first three rounds consist of three races each.
In each round, four drivers are eliminated, leaving only four to compete for the Bill France Cup in the final race of the season.
The Illinois Office of Tourism said fans from more than 48 states and 20 countries attended this year’s Enjoy Illinois 300 and generated $60 million in economic impact for the Metro East.
On Tuesday, NASCAR announced that the Cup Series will race in Mexico next season, the first international points event in nearly 70 years. The race is scheduled for June 15 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
The only two points-paying Cup races previously held internationally were in Canada. The first was at Stamford Park in Ontario, Canada, in 1952, and then the Canadian Exposition Center in Toronto in 1958.
NASCAR was expected to formally release the full 2025 schedule on Thursday, according to The Athletic.
The day before the Enjoy Illinois 300, the NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to WWT Raceway after a 14-year absence. The 200-lap, 250-mile race will be one of 33 regular-season races broadcast on The CW.
“Ever since I purchased and reopened the track, one of the most-asked questions has been ‘When will the Xfinity Series come back?’,” Francois said. “We greatly appreciate NASCAR’s willingness to reunite us with the Xfinity Series.”
WWT Raceway hosted 15 Xfinity Series races from 1997–2010, including two in the final season.
The winners of races held at WWT Raceway reads like a who’s who of NASCAR greats: Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr.
In the last Xfinity Series (previously known as the Busch Series) race to be held at WWT Raceway, Edwards and Keselowski battled in a green-white-checkered shootout.
The drivers’ cars made contact as they approached the checkered flag. Edwards won the race, and Keselowski’s car triggered a massive pile-up at the finish line.
In addition to the two races, the Confluence Music Festival is scheduled to return as part of the weekend schedule. Ludacris and country music star Riley Green headlined the event this year.
WWT Raceway’s ticket office is accepting ticket deposits and renewals for NASCAR weekend packages. Visit wwtraceway.com or call 618-215-8888 for more information.