The first NASCAR Chicago Street Race was anything but boring. Here’s how the downtown event played out, from the construction of the track to the racers crossing the finish line.
In a concerted effort to keep downtown streets open as long as possible to minimize disruption, construction of the track and grandstands was not completed until the eve of the race.
Construction of the Paddock Club, a premier two-story high deck overlooking the start/finish line at Buckingham Fountain, began on June 2nd, made possible by adjacent parking restrictions on Columbus Drive between Jackson and Balbo Drives.
For the week leading up to the race, forklifts and 18-wheel vehicles were used to cordon off sections of Grant Park, erect grandstands and begin placing 2,000 concrete barriers at the edge of the racecourse, a process to be completed by June 30th was. Each barrier is topped with a tall, curved fence to contain the debris from the race cars before they reach spectators.
The barriers, which were cast at an undisclosed Chicago-area facility, are 12 feet long, 3 ½ feet high, and weigh 10,000 pounds each. They are stored at McCormick Place Truck Marshaling Yard and driven four at a time, an arduous process that began on June 19 on a cordoned 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 the fence to the stands, is rented for the event.
The roads were patched in places by the Chicago Department of Transportation in advance of the race, but remain an authentic Chicago roadway with a mix of concrete, tarmac and varying surface finishes.
The limited repair work was already on the city’s to-do list and focused on Lake Shore Drive, Columbus and Jackson, said Julie Giese, president of the Chicago Street Race.
Dismantling the stretch of road after the race took much less time as the final stretch is expected to be out of Grant Park on July 15th. That includes the 2,000 concrete barriers that NASCAR will need to store, preferably somewhere in the Chicago area, until next year’s race.
The 2.2-mile, twelve-turn course included seven 90-degree turns through the streets of Chicago.
“It’s obviously tight in sections. I think that’s going to be a hot topic of conversation,” said driver Chase Elliott before the race. “I do think it will be difficult to overtake when everyone has found the right pace in the race. But I hope that we can manage to create variety and do different things.”
The pop-up course begins on Columbus Drive in front of Buckingham Fountain and includes sections of DuSable Lake Shore Drive and South Michigan Avenue in a lap full of sharp corners, bottlenecks and an urban setting far from the typical NASCAR track .
“My first reaction was that the track is a lot wider than I expected,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., the retired driver-turned-NBC analyst. “But it also runs down some tight areas, which will create some challenges when it comes to getting into those areas, like who goes first. They will argue about that.”
Earnhardt said drivers should have a top speed of 140 mph on straights like DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Some corners would force the cars to slow to around 40mph, he said, while others would allow for 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. Of course, this assumes that the traffic lights stay green.
One of the most challenging spots will be Turn 7 from Balbo onto South Michigan Avenue.
“You cross a bridge down a hill and you come out on Turn 7 onto Michigan Avenue,” Earnhardt said. “The car is light because it’s going up a hill and then they have to brake and slow it down tremendously.”
The downtown Chicago racing spectacle 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 are going to be people who have never seen a NASCAR race,” said driver Kevin Harvick. “If you want the sport to grow, you have to do things like that.”
Days before the race, Bubba Wallace – driver #23 of 23XI Racing, a co-owner of Michael Jordan – hosted “Bubba’s Block Party,” a nationwide community event 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 by Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco.
“A lot of people have said they don’t feel welcome to be a part of our sport,” he told the Tribune. “I’ve always enjoyed my time, except when I’m losing. But the stories I’ve heard and people’s comments show that we need to do better.”
The block party initiative, which began last year, took place in Richmond, Virginia, and Birmingham, Alabama — both cities with black-majority and minority communities. They are designed to create a fun atmosphere for Wallace to connect with fans of all ages.
[ [Don’t miss] Column: NASCAR Brings New Fans to Chicago, from “Cultural Exchange” at the South Side Museum to Jumping Puddles in Grant Park ]
NASCAR held 19 cup races at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, 45 miles from downtown, but was discontinued four years ago. It was hoped the relocation would help attract new fans, both in person and through NBC’s broadcast.
“NASCAR now has to compete with a very demanding Formula One, at least here in the United States,” said Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports marketing consultant. “They need to improve their skills and the Chicago Street Race is an example of that.”
Downtown Chicago turned into a slippery, fast-paced racetrack after the street race got off to a late start due to rain delays.
The rain threatened to prevent the race from starting at all in the early afternoon. The day was supposed to start with the remainder of the Xfinity Series Loop 121 race, which was delayed Saturday due to lightning, but NASCAR officials decided to cancel Sunday morning’s second race. Flash flood warnings were in effect throughout Sunday.
Several racers expressed concerns before the race delay was announced and again when it was announced that the race would indeed start on Sunday.
“We can’t see anything in it, so it’s impossible. I think there are also a lot of big puddles on the track and we just fly off the road into the barriers,” said driver Martin Truex Jr. as he walked to his car.
The drivers picked up speed as the track seemed to dry out as the competition progressed. The pit crews swapped the cars’ rain tires for faster racing “slicks” with a smoother profile.
A NASCAR official told the Tribune that the organization worked closely with the city on the decision to start the race. Before the start of the race, organizers used Air Titans to blow water out of the track’s sodden asphalt.
Air quality concerns arose ahead of the weekend’s events.
[ [Don’t miss] How loud was the NASCAR Chicago Street Race? We measured the noise along the downtown route. ]
Chicago — one of the country’s 25 most polluted cities — has been impacted by pollutants from Canadian wildfires that have obscured the skyline for the past month and resulted in unhealthy conditions for everyone.
“It can be very, very warm and humid, typical of July,” Evanston-based retired mechanical engineer Fred Wittenberg said. “And I can only imagine what will happen with the crowds down there and the cars speeding around on Saturday and Sunday. That is my concern.”
A race that started in the rain ended in the last rays of sunset. Three-time Supercars Champion, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen clinched victory on his first start in the Cup Series, 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 Saturday’s restart of the Xfinity Series race was canceled and Cole Custer was declared the winner.
This NASCAR Chicago Street Race honestly couldn’t look cooler. Here is a thread with racing videos.
First the sacred skyline of Chicago. pic.twitter.com/bo3tv7hVS3
— Jake Sheridan (@JakeSheridan_) July 3, 2023
The Cup Series race was shortened from 100 to 75 laps due to the onset of darkness.
There were many cars that hit the tire barriers, but none of the spectacular multicar crashes that one often sees in NASCAR races on oval tracks. A slow-motion pile-up near the end looked like a typical Chicago street accident.
Chase Elliott said the race would have been a “home run” had it not been for the rain.
“By and large, I thought it was a success,” he said.
The four-hour NBC broadcast averaged nearly 4.8 million viewers, making it the network’s most watched Cup Series race in six years, according to preliminary Nielsen data.
The event was expected to attract 50,000 fans, generate nearly $114 million in economic impact and feature hours of nationwide TV coverage. Tickets range from $269 for two-day general admission to over $3,000 for the premium Paddock Club overlooking the Buckingham Fountain start/finish line.
While NASCAR announces no ticket sales, nine Parts of the reserved seats were sold out on Friday, a spokesman said. There are 20,000 reserved seats and 30,000 general admission tickets for the two-day event.
An economic impact study commissioned by NASCAR estimates that the city’s first Chicago Street Race will generate $113.8 million in expenses, $3.2 million in tax revenue, 850 full-time jobs and 24,000 hotel nights .
Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago sports economist, said the economic impact would likely account for about 10% of the projected total, questioning both the study’s methodology and the revenue generated by the disruptions — including prolonged road closures in the city Downtown – would be lost case.
“If I wanted to come to Chicago with my family for a weekend to visit museums, ball games or anything like that, I wouldn’t choose this one,” he said.
In a post-race press conference, NASCAR organizers praised Mayor Brandon Johnson for helping with the race. The three-year contract between the Chicago Park District and NASCAR was overseen by Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
The private stock car racing organization will pay the Chicago Park District a permit fee of $500,000 this year, $550,000 in 2024 and $605,000 in 2025, with an option for a two-year extension.
Johnson expressed some skepticism about fulfilling the contract, which allows either party to opt out 180 days or more before the next race without penalty. On July 3, he made a non-binding statement on the future.
“We are very grateful that NASCAR was able to deliver with minimal disruption despite the extreme weather,” Johnson said in a news conference. “Like everything I’ve inherited, I’m a teacher, so I’m going to evaluate and grade it, and it’s going to be an open process that allows other people to have their say.”