NASCAR star explains 'eerie' visit to abandoned Cup Series track

NASCAR Cup Series star Carson Hocevar has opened up on the experience of walking around an abandoned racetrack in Illinois.

The controversial young driver took an impromptu trip to the now-dormant Chicagoland Speedway last week, posting a video to his YouTube channel of him wandering around the abandoned complex.

Quizzed on the decision to go and check out the track, which has been almost exclusively dormant as a racing venue since 2020 (since a planned Cup Series race was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic), he admitted that he's wanted to explore this particular circuit for some time.

Calling the experience 'eerie', the 22-year-old also revealed that he enjoys the experience of going to see racetracks, even if he's not racing.

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Hocevar reveals 'eerie' feeling at racetrack

"Yeah, we were at Autobahn [Country Club, a road circuit in Joliet] doing a Zeigler auto group event, and my flight got delayed an hour or so.

"I had some time, I always have flown over it for when I [inaudible] and come to Chicago, fly a helicopter right over the racetrack, and so I'm seeing it, I'm looking at things I'm like, 'Man I really wish I could see this and that,'" Hocevar told Steven Taranto.

"And now that I had an hour or two flying back out of Chicago, I was like 'alright, I'm gonna go drive over', just kind of walk in and see what it actually looks like up close. It's cool to see it in person.

"It's kind of eerie feeling, but I like just going to check racetracks out. I always find those videos of people exploring abandoned stuff, or even movies where they explore the prequels or whatever when everything's abandoned. I think that's super cool, and to me, I think racetracks are a lot less empty and cooler looking, so I just like racetracks."

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