in may 2000, as chicagoland speedway was under construction, it was announced that the track would hold a nascar winston cup series race beginning in the 2001 season. tropicana served as the race's sponsor from 2001 to 2004, followed by usg corporation from 2005 to 2007, lifelock.com from 2008 to 2010, geico from 2011 to 2013, johnson &amp; johnson's janssen pharmaceutica from 2014 to 2015, and nickelodeon has sponsored the race through the network's "teenage mutant ninja turtles" series since 2016. kevin harvick won the first two runnings of the race in 2001 and 2002, while tony stewart has the most wins in the race's history, having won it three times, in 2004, 2007 and 2011. traditionally run in early to mid july, the race became the opening race of the nascar playoffs in 2011, moving the race to mid september in the process. however, due to a schedule realignment in 2018, the race will return to a july race weekend moving forward.