NASCAR starts its engines on an unlikely course: Downtown Chicago
When Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a deal to bring NASCAR to the streets of downtown Chicago, the idea was met with surprise and bewilderment locally.
Chicagoans have a deep, if often unrequited, love for their sports teams, but a limited grasp of the world of stock car racing. NASCAR, for its part, had never sent its best drivers to race among the sharp turns and manhole covers of city streets, usually preferring neatly paved tracks in places like Daytona Beach, Fla., and Talladega, Ala.
Unlikely as a union between the country’s most popular racing series and its third largest city may have been, it is now a fact.
The bleachers are located along the treeline in Grant Park, Chicago’s front yard. There are barriers next to bus stops at the Art Institute. And on Sunday, motorists will hurtle past Buckingham Fountain, turn at the Field Museum, and drive onto Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive, traveling at up to 140 miles per hour, more than four times the usual speed limit.
Still, many questions linger—about the high-decibel roar of race cars; about the potential for epic, city-growing traffic jams; about whether NASCAR even belongs in Chicago.
“This is great if you’re wealthy and can afford to be a part of it,” said Edgar Leslie, a resident of Chicago’s South Side, who said his city has more pressing concerns, such as homelessness, than a car race where the tickets start at $269 and reach over $3,000. “There are so many people who are not wealthy and can’t afford to be a part of it. What does that mean for those people?”
An unlikely partnership
Two years ago, as new Covid variants left downtown America empty, NASCAR tried something new: a televised simulated race through a digitized Chicago. Without leaving home, the sport’s best drivers race virtual cars on a track almost identical to the one they’ll be racing on this weekend.
There were early mumbles in the NASCAR world that the online race could be the precursor to a live-action version. But to make it happen would have to sell the idea to a city not known for being a stronghold of motorsport fans. Plus, racing on city streets, with their bumps and curbs and 90-degree turns, was a far cry from NASCAR’s usual straights and left turns.
Still, both sides saw an opportunity.
The pandemic had been unkind to downtown Chicago. Commuters stayed home. Office spaces went dark. Two lootings drove the visitors away, as did the city-wide murder rate soar to generational heights.
Bringing an auto race to Chicago, city leaders said, had the potential to fill hotels, showcase the photogenic lakeshore, and attract race fans who live within a day’s drive but otherwise probably wouldn’t come.
“You think about some of the key demographics for those involved in NASCAR,” said Samir Mayekar, who served as deputy mayor in Mrs. Lightfoot’s administration, “and a lot of those demographics might have a different perception of Chicago This is an opportunity for them to visit our amazing world-class city and just see how amazing it is.”
NASCAR, which grew over the decades from a mostly regional series in the rural South to a national circuit with passionate fans, had its own pandemic problems.
A top driver was suspended for racist statements. There was a call, which NASCAR heeded, from the only black driver in the sport’s top class to ban Confederate flags on racetracks. There was a vulgar chant that NASCAR fans addressed to President Biden, prompting the slogan “Let’s Go Brandon.”
Street racing seemed to offer a shift in conversation and a way for NASCAR to move forward on its long-held goal of diversifying its fanbase.
About 6 percent of Americans identify themselves as ardent NASCAR fans, according to the SSRS/Luker on Trends Sports Poll, down from a peak of 16 percent in 2004. White people made up about two-thirds of ardent NASCAR fans in 2022 , according to the poll, down 13 percentage points since 2004. The poll showed growth in the percentage of avid fans who were black or Hispanic, up 10 percentage points since 2004 to about a quarter of those fans by 2022.
Although NASCAR had previously raced on a traditional speedway an hour from downtown Chicago, the leaders hoped to reach a new audience in the city, which is home to a similar number of white, black and Hispanic residents.
“When you watch any type of sporting event, asking fans to drive more than an hour is a bit much to ask,” said Joey Logano, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who will race in Chicago. He said he liked the idea of ”bringing an event like this to the people — downtown — and making it where you really can’t get away from it.”
There are no guarantees that it will work.
In driver interviews for a sold-out race in Madison, Illinois, just outside St. Louis, most said they were looking forward to the Chicago event, even though they weren’t sure how it would go. Many had never raced on the street. Some admitted they were worried about tight passing zones and the possibility of track-blocking collisions.
“I don’t know if it’s going to work — there’s a chance it won’t work,” said Brad Keselowski, a former NASCAR champion who will race in Chicago. “But I respect the fact that we’re taking pictures.”
An uncertain course
Ms. Lightfoot announced a three-year agreement with NASCAR executives last summer to bring auto racing to the city streets. The grumbling followed almost immediately.
Members of the city council were outraged that the mayor, then seeking re-election, had left them out of the negotiations. Residents worried about noise, street closures, potential damage to artifacts at the world-famous Art Institute of Chicago, and more.
While running on city streets is a first for NASCAR’s Cup Series, it’s not an entirely new concept. IndyCar races on the streets of Detroit and Nashville, among others, while Formula 1, which has gained enormous popularity in the United States, competes on circuits along ordinary streets, including in Azerbaijan, Monaco and, later this year, Las Vegas .
Following the Chicago announcement, NASCAR set up a local office and began a charm offensive, explaining the basics of the sport to residents who had never seen a race.
They brought students from Chicago Public Schools to the Field Museum to meet a driver and test their hand on a race-themed technical problem. They met with skeptical city councilors and neighborhood groups. And after working with the Art Institute to make sure race vibrations wouldn’t endanger artifacts, they unveiled a promotional car with Vincent van Gogh.
The community relations blitz earned the sport grudging respect from early skeptics and solidified support from residents who saw the race as a clear victory for the city.
Liana Gissendanner, a resident of Chicago’s West Side and a fan of driver Bubba Wallace, said she’s long loved NASCAR, though she said many of her neighbors weren’t too familiar with the sport.
“It’s a big deal; it’s definitely good for the community,” said Ms. Gissendanner, who was thinking about attending the Sunday afternoon race, which starts at 4:30 p.m. Central Time and airs on NBC. She added: “I know people are complaining about the streets being closed off – that’s a big theme – but I think people are excited.”
But skepticism remains rife and patience for the long list of road closures has been exhausted among residents whose commutes were already time-consuming.
“How safe is it to drive these cars on the city streets when people live on Michigan Avenue, on Roosevelt Road, just steps away from what’s going to be a racetrack?” said Leslie Recht, who leads a residents’ advisory council for Grant Park, the vast green space through which the racecourse meanders.
If the weekend goes well, there’s a chance the event will become a pivot point for NASCAR, which can’t easily build new tracks but can find streets to race on in most major cities. NASCAR has also held an event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, better known as a football venue, for the past two years.
“If we can prove a stadium and a street course,” said Ben Kennedy, a NASCAR senior vice president, “that unlocks the door for us to go into a lot of other markets.”
There is also a chance that the street race will be a one-off.
Ms Lightfoot, who brought the race to town, lost her bid for re-election this year and left office in May. Her successor and fellow Democrat, Mayor Brandon Johnson, has been polite but cautious about NASCAR, though he attended a pre-race event this week. He had little choice to go through with this year’s race, but after the checkered flag flew he was able to try to take the city out of the rest of the contract.
“Will this idea expand how we think about what can be offered in a big city?” said Mr. Johnson in an interview shortly before his inauguration. “And if it has the ability to spark our imagination and create real opportunity for the people of Chicago, it becomes a baseline of whether we go through with it or not.”
In other words, this weekend is a test.
“If they get this done the first year and have some naysayers and critics say, ‘Well, it turned out not to be so bad after all,’ then it will pay off,” said Brian Hopkins, a member of the city council. of Chicago who said he thought the race’s economic benefits were exaggerated. “If, on the other hand, things go bad, I think there will be pressure on the new mayor to cancel this deal.”