Is there anything better than summer NASCAR action in the Midwest? Not much comes to mind, which is why you need to plan to attend the, a Sprint Cup Series stock car race held annually each summer at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Formerly named the Tropicana 400 (2001-04) or USG Sheetrock 400 (2005-07), the LifeLock.com 400 date was added to the NASCAR calendar in 2001 as a day race, before switching to a nighttime run beginning with the 2008 event.
Race sponsorship has now been taken over by LifeLock, a fraud-prevention company which has also previously sponsored the Kansas 400 in 2007, and the first Michigan 400 race of the year in 2008 and 2009, with all three carrying the title of LifeLock 400 during that time.
Even with the LifeLock.com 400 being a relatively new race in the Sprint seasonal lineup, it has already provided some great races. In nine years since its debut in 2001, the 400 has had seven different winners, with Kevin Harvick (2001-02) and Tony Stewart (2004, 2007) being the only ones to repeat as winners. Chevy-based teams must love coming to Chicagoland for the LifeLock, considering that a Chevrolet has won seven of the nine races so far, followed distantly by Dodge (2003) and Toyota (2008) winning the only remaining two.
Outside of the short but varied list of winners and Chevrolet dominance, four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson holds the record for the fastest qualifying lap ever at Chicagoland, with a blistering 188.147 MPH, while the distinction of winning the fastest Tropicana 400 belongs to Kevin Harvick in 2002, in a time of 2:55:37 and at an average speed of 136.832 MPH. In the short history of the LifeLock.com 400, the race has seemingly brought out the best in many of NASCAR's best drivers and teams, with defending race champion taking home the highest winner's purse ever for this race in 2009, $1,333,200, or just a few bucks less $10,000 for every mile-per-hour of his average winning speed of 133.804 MPH!
