Column: Welcoming back NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race and hoping for a new course to showcase the city

NASCAR fans are rejoicing over Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to welcome the sport back to Chicago next summer for another shot at finishing their race.

As some may recall, the inaugural Chicago Street Race, the first street race in Cup Series history, was mired by historic rain that forced organizers to delay the start by about 90 minutes and eventually shorten it from 100 to 75 laps on account of impending darkness.

New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars winner, won the race in his first Cup Series start. The ratings for NBC Sports were huge, the drivers mostly lauded the event, and everyone declared the race a rousing success in spite of the weather.

But a Tribune report on the return of the NASCAR event in 2024 revealed the city spent at least $3.5 million on police overtime and construction for the ’23 event, and received only $620,000 in return from NASCAR.

That’s about as much as the city gets annually from my family for red light camera tickets, so some observers were shocked and dismayed at the relatively chintzy return. For a NASCAR event that took weeks to prepare and months to promote, $620,000 sounds like chicken feed.

“That’s what we get? Are you kidding me?” Ald. Brian Hopkins said to a Tribune reporter when informed of the payment. “Clearly, we did not get the best end of this deal and NASCAR obviously made out very lucratively, even with the weather keeping the crowd down, and the cancellation of the concert … we just didn’t really benefit from this, that’s obvious at this point.”

According to a report, the economic impact of $109 million was also slightly lower than the $113.8 million NASCAR projected, so the benefits from having a race on our streets were a bit overblown.

As Chicago deals go, it still pales in comparison to the parking meter fiasco under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. But it shows once again that when it comes to being fleeced, we’re in a league of our own.

To be fair, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was the one who made the deal with NASCAR. Lightfoot was ousted by the time the race came around, leaving Johnson to reap the “benefits.”

But Johnson owned it like it was his idea. At the pre-race Driver Meeting, where VIPs and sponsors got to hobnob with the drivers before the start, Johnson took to the podium to welcome the NASCAR drivers to “the greatest city in the entire fricking world” and encourage them to stick around and “spend as much money as you possibly can.”

“We need the revenue to make sure we have fully funded schools, good transportation, access to health care, affordable housing,” Johnson said as though he was still running.

It was sad to see the mayor begging millionaire race car drivers to help fix our budget problems, but that’s Chicago.

No matter how little the city made from the NASCAR deal, the race will be back on July 6-7, 2024, at least avoiding the Fourth of July holiday this time. Everyone living in the race zone has been warned months in advance to make plans to be elsewhere that weekend or risk having their ears blown out.

Hopefully better weather can make it a more successful race, but there’s still the problem of the downtown course itself, or specifically the seven 90-degree turns that forced the drivers to slow to a crawl. One memorable moment occurred on the 50th lap when a spin by William Byron turning east onto Jackson Boulevard from Michigan Avenue caused a massive 14-car pileup. Everyone in Chicago could relate.

A “pop-up” course should be just that, meaning the city could move it to another venue and pop it in for 2024. If they want a more exciting event that doesn’t have so much slowing down and crashing into a row of tires around the curves, they have to start thinking big.

Last summer I proposed a course that would start on the toll plaza of the Chicago SkyWay and wind through the South and North Sides, giving drivers the true Chicago experience of getting around double-parked Amazon Prime trucks, avoiding scooter riders and cyclists, and making a pit stop for a dog at The Weiners Circle.

That idea was rejected without review, but it’s never too late for the city to wise up and come up with its own plan.

Now that we’ve seen the downtown backdrop, why not try something else? Maybe a race from Buckingham Fountain down the Eisenhower, turning north on Damen Avenue and south on Madison Street past the United Center and zig-zagging up Ogden Avenue? Or Upper Wacker Drive to Lower Wacker Drive and ending at the Billy Goat Tavern?

Certainly we can find a more interesting course to showcase our city’s sights and sounds. I’m open to suggestions. The Chicago Marathon does that every year, and even those who find long-distance racing boring can agree the city looks great from neighborhood to neighborhood.

If the organizers want the Chicago Street Race to become an annual event that Chicagoans can get behind, they better change course before it’s too late.

Otherwise it will be just another in a series of bad Chicago deals.