Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR Weather Forecast: How Concerned About Rain Should We Be?

The two big weather stories this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway are the chilly fall temperatures, and the increasing threat of rain Sunday afternoon. Temperatures for most of the day Friday are going to struggle to get out of the 50s along with mostly cloudy skies. It remains cool for Saturday but a little warmer as highs reach the mid 60s along with mostly sunny skies.

Sunday is a little warmer as the area of high pressure that brought the Autumn chill to the Midwest slides off to the northeast. The downside to the warm up is the increasing chances of scattered showers and storms going into Sunday afternoon and evening.

I want to stress that we are not talking Watkins Glen or Atlanta kind of rain. Current timing from most of the current forecast models holds the rain off until Sunday evening. That is a perfect scenario for getting the race in but I caution that just because the forecast models show slower arrive today doesn’t mean they will hold true tomorrow or going into the weekend.

My impression is we should be ok for Sunday, I don’t see a widespread area of rain arriving until Sunday evening, after the race but keep checking back as I will have updates as new information becomes available. My detailed forecast is below.

FRIDAY:
10 a.m EDT
Truck Practice – Mostly cloudy and very cool – temp: 48
11:30 a.m EDT
Truck Final Practice – Clouds, limited sun and cool – temp: 55
12:30 p.m EDT
Nationwide Practice – Clouds, limited sun and cool – temp: 56
2:00 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Practice – Mostly cloudy – temp: 60
3:30 p.m EDT
Truck Qualifying – Mostly cloudy – temp: 60
4:30 p.m EDT
Nationwide Final Practice– Clouds, limited sun and cool – temp: 59
6:00 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Final Practice – Partly Sunny – temp: 57
8 p.m EDT
Truck Race – Partly Cloudy – temp: 54
SATURDAY:
12 p.m EDT
Nationwide Qualifying – Mostly sunny – temp: 60
1:30 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Qualifying – Mostly sunny – temp: 65
3:30 p.m EDT
Nationwide Race – Mostly sunny – temp: 65
SUNDAY:
2:00 p.m EDT
Sprint Cup Race – Mostly cloudy, chance of a scattered shower or storm – temp: 70