NASCAR Chicago Street Race: How the inaugural event unfolded, from course design to finish line
The inaugural NASCAR Chicago Street Race was anything but dull. Here’s how the downtown event unfolded, from building the course to racers crossing the finish line.
Building the course
In a concerted effort to keep downtown roads open as long as possible to minimize disruption, construction of the course and grandstands weren’t completed until the eve of the race.
Construction of the Paddock Club, a premium two-level elevated deck overlooking the start/finish line at Buckingham Fountain, began June 2, enabled by adjacent parking restrictions on Columbus Drive between Jackson and Balbo drives.
Forklifts and 18-wheelers plied closed off sections of Grant Park the week before the race, erecting stands and beginning to place 2,000 concrete barriers on the perimeter of the racecourse, a process that took until June 30 to complete. Each barrier is topped with tall curved fencing to catch any debris from the race cars before reaching the spectators.
The barriers, which were poured at an undisclosed Chicago-area facility, are 12 feet long, 3 ½ feet tall and weigh 10,000 pounds each. They are being stored at the McCormick Place Truck Marshaling Yard and driven in four at a time, a laborious process that began June 19 on a closed-off section of Balbo Drive.
The concrete barriers are essentially the only component of the pop-up street course owned by NASCAR. Everything else, from fencing to grandstands, is leased for the event.
The roads were patched up in spots by the Chicago Department of Transportation in advance of the race, but remain an authentic Chicago street course, with a mélange of concrete, asphalt and varying surface integrity.
The limited repair work was already on the city’s to-do list, and focused on Lake Shore Drive, Columbus and Jackson, Julie Giese, president of the Chicago Street Race, said.
Breaking the street course down after the race took a lot less time, with the last piece expected to be out of Grant Park by July 15. That includes the 2,000 concrete barriers, which NASCAR must store until next year’s race, preferably somewhere in the Chicago area.
Racing the course
The 12-turn, 2.2-mile course included seven 90-degree turns around the streets of Chicago.
“It’s obviously narrow in sections. I think that’s going to be a hot topic of things to talk about,” driver Chase Elliott said before the race. “I do think it’s going to be difficult to pass once everybody gets up to pace come race time. But I hope that we’re able to mix it up and do different things.”
The pop-up course will start on Columbus Drive in front of Buckingham Fountain, taking in stretches of DuSable Lake Shore Drive and South Michigan Avenue in a lap filled with sharp turns, bottlenecks and an urban backdrop far removed from the typical NASCAR track.
“My first reaction was that the track is a lot wider than I anticipated,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., the retired driver turned NBC analyst. “But it also funnels down in some narrow spaces that will create some challenges as they contest positions getting into those areas, like who goes first. They’re going to argue over that.”
Earnhardt said drivers should top 140 mph on straightaways such as DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Some turns will force the cars to slow down to about 40 mph, he said, while others will accommodate much higher speeds.
The fastest turn will likely be No. 2, from Balbo Drive onto DuSable Lake Shore Drive, with drivers hitting 90 to 100 mph, Earnhardt said. That assumes, of course, the traffic lights stay green.
One of the most challenging spots will be turn 7 from Balbo onto South Michigan Avenue.
“You cross over a bridge down a hill into turn 7 onto Michigan Avenue,” Earnhardt said. “The car is light, because it’s cresting a hill, and then they’ve got to brake and slow it down tremendously.”
Bringing in new crowds
The spectacle of racing in downtown Chicago was exactly what NASCAR was hoping to create when it announced the event a year ago.
“They told us that over 80% of the fans here this weekend will be people who have never watched a NASCAR race,” driver Kevin Harvick said. “If you’re going to grow the sport, you’re going to have to do stuff like this.”
Days before the race, Bubba Wallace — driver No. 23 of Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing — hosted “Bubba’s Block Party,” a nationwide community initiative at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
The South Side event featured racing-themed entertainment, local food from Black-owned businesses and a live musical performance from Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco.
“A lot of people (have been) saying that they don’t feel welcomed to be a part of our sport,” he told the Tribune. “I’ve always enjoyed my time, except when I lose. But from the stories that I’ve heard and people’s comments, we got to be better.”
The block party initiative, which began last year, has been held in Richmond, Va., and Birmingham, Ala. — both cities with majority Black and minority communities. They are intended to be a fun atmosphere where Wallace can connect with fans of all ages.
NASCAR ran 19 Cup races at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, a 45-mile drive from downtown, but it pulled out four years ago. It hoped the change in location will help attract new fans, both in person and with the NBC broadcast.
“NASCAR needs to compete now with a very sophisticated Formula 1, at least here in the United States,” said Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports marketing consultant. “They need to up their game, and the Chicago Street Race is one example of doing that.”
Weather and air quality issues
Downtown Chicago turned into a slick, speed-drenched racetrack after the street race started late following rain delays.
The rain had threatened to stop the race from ever starting earlier in the afternoon. The day had been set to start with the rest of the Xfinity Series Loop 121 race that had been postponed Saturday because of lightning, but NASCAR officials decided to call off the secondary race Sunday morning. Flash flood warnings were in effect throughout Sunday.
Several racers shared concerns before the race delay was announced and again when it was announced that the race would indeed start Sunday.
“We can’t see in this, so it’s impossible. I think there’s a lot of big puddles on the track too, and we’ll just fly off the road into the barriers,” driver Martin Truex Jr. said as he walked to his car.
The drivers picked up speed as the track appeared to dry further into the competition. Pit crews swapped the cars’ rain tires for faster racing “slicks” designed with smoother treads.
A NASCAR official told the Tribune the organization had worked closely with the city to decide to start the race. Before the race began, the event organizers used Air Titans to blow water from the course’s sodden pavement.
Before the weekend’s events, there were concerns about air quality conditions.
Chicago — among the 25 most polluted cities in the country — was hampered by pollutants from Canadian wildfires that have obscured the skyline over the past month and reached unhealthy conditions for everyone.
“It can be very, very warm and humid, typical for July,” Evanston resident and retired mechanical engineer Fred Wittenberg said. “And I can only imagine what’s going to happen with crowds down there and these cars racing around on Saturday and Sunday. That is my concern.”
Recapping the races
A race that began in rain ended in the final rays of a sunset. New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion, took the victory in his first Cup Series start, becoming the first driver to do so since Johnny Rutherford in 1963.
The day began with uncertainty. The race was delayed an hour and a half by rain after the resumption of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race was canceled and Cole Custer declared the winner.
The Cup Series race was shortened from 100 to 75 laps because of oncoming darkness.
There were plenty of cars hitting the tire barriers but none of the spectacular multicar crashes often seen in NASCAR races on oval tracks. One slow-motion pileup near the end looked like a typical Chicago street accident.
Chase Elliott said the race would’ve been a “home run” if not for the rain.
“Overall I thought it was a success,” he said.
The four-hour broadcast on NBC averaged nearly 4.8 million viewers, making it the network’s most-watched Cup Series race in six years, according to preliminary Nielsen data.
Economic impact on city
The event was expected to draw 50,000 fans, generate nearly $114 million in economic impact and provide hours of national TV coverage. Tickets range from $269 for two-day general admission to more than $3,000 for the premium Paddock Club overlooking the start/finish line at Buckingham Fountain.
While NASCAR does not disclose ticket sales, nine sections of reserved seats were sold out as of Friday, a spokesperson said. There are 20,000 reserved seats and 30,000 general admission tickets for the two-day event.
A NASCAR-commissioned economic impact study projects the inaugural Chicago Street Race will bring the city $113.8 million in spending, $3.2 million in tax revenue, 850 full-time equivalent jobs and 24,000 hotel room nights.
Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago sports economist, said the economic impact is likely to be about 10% of the projected total, questioning both the study’s methodology and the revenue that will be lost by the disruption — including lengthy road closures downtown — of the event.
“If I wanted to come to Chicago for a weekend with my family to go to museums or ballgames or something, I wouldn’t pick this one,” he said.
What’s next?
In a postrace news conference, NASCAR organizers praised Mayor Brandon Johnson for collaborating on the race. The three-year contract between the Chicago Park District and NASCAR was shepherded by Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
The privately owned stock car racing organization will pay the Chicago Park District a $500,000 permit fee this year, $550,000 in 2024 and $605,000 in 2025, with an option to renew for two years.
Johnson has expressed some skepticism about fulfilling the contract, which allows both parties to opt out 180 days or more before the next race at no penalty. He was noncommittal on July 3 on its future.
“We’re very grateful that despite, the extreme weather, NASCAR was able to deliver with very minimal disruption,” Johnson said in a news conference. “Like everything that I inherited, I am a teacher, so I will assess it and grade it, and it will be an open process where other folks get a chance to weigh in.”
