A bit of racing news has crossed the wire — news that is admittedly close to my heart since I live in the Windy City.
NASCAR is apparently coming to Chicago.
Not returning to Chicagoland Speedway in far southwest suburban Joliet, which coincidentally your author used as a backdrop for some test-vehicle photos this past weekend. No. Instead, the stock cars will be racing on the streets of the Chi.
The race weekend appears slated for July 1-2, and it also appears to be the first of a three-year deal.
Sadly, it also might mean NASCAR won’t go to the famed Road America track near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (about a three-hour drive from Chicago) next year. I attended the 2021 race and enjoyed it immensely, despite the heat. NASCAR should, in my opinion, be at Road America every year.
That said, I am sure NASCARs bouncing and sliding around the Loop will be a sight to behold, though I also know how badly shutting down downtown streets will screw up traffic. Us locals already deal with the music festival Lollapalooza every year — and the street closures needed for a stock-car race will involve a bigger chunk of land.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the race course will be 2.2 miles long and be north of Roosevelt Road, making use of Columbus Drive, Michigan Avenue, and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. It might go as far north as Jackson Boulevard, which is part of the old Route 66.
For non-locals, that is most of you, this means the route will be in the heart of downtown, near the famous Grant Park. I’d expect Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, and the famed Buckingham Fountain to be part of the backdrop.
It’s also criminal if they don’t recreate The Blues Brothers (or The Dark Knight, for you younger folk) and use part of Lower Wacker Drive.
Non-race fans will complain, NASCAR fans will descend upon downtown, the SearsWillis Tower will look great on TV, and the racecar engines will sound great bouncing around the urban canyons, to the dismay of local residents hoping for an afternoon nap.
Should be fun.
Update: It appears this became official as I working on the post. See you next summer, NASCAR.
[Image: NASCAR]
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Chicago was one of my favorite business trip towns.
Except. The expressways are dead stop regardless of time of day. Great museums. Jazz Record Mart. Millers Pub. And Carl behind the bar at the The Drake. I fear its all gone. Might never go back.
I always seemed to go in the winter and so it wasn’t my favorite. Dang it’s cold there.
Uh…isn’t NASCAR about four turns again and again?
Gonna be tough for those drivers to do anything different…
Grand Theft Auto anyone? It is Chiraq …..
LA was about getting NASCAR drivers stabbed. It’s only appropriate to bring the drivers to a place where they will get shot.
“Grand Theft Auto anyone? It is Chiraq …..”
I travel to Chicago regularly for business, and it’s a pretty nice place to visit.
There’s a reason it’s an HCOL place — lots of people want to live there!
The Fox News crowd is terrified of Chicago, and I’m OK with those terrified folks staying home and leaving the city for the rest of us!
^^THIS^^
Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the middle of Freddie Flintstone land. This blows their “coastal elites” propaganda BS up and they hate that.
Best thing about Chicago is the museums. And since NASCAR technology belongs in a…
well never mind.
Chicago is an absolute dump. Why would Nascar want to do this? Thin out the driving pool?
“Chicago is an absolute dump. Why would Nascar want to do this? Thin out the driving pool?”
NASCAR is doing this to try to get fans from outside of their “traditional demographic”.
Chicago is doing this to show NASCAR’s “traditional demographic” that stuff Fox News says about the city is mostly politically-motivated lies & exaggeration.
Cities are where the money is in America, and this is marketing all the way down.
You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in Englewood or Lawndale.
You’re going to feel like a fool when you see this broadcast and the sheer beauty of the setting.
Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the lake filled with sailboats, the skyscrapers reflecting off of it, people from all over the world on the shore and walking paths everywhere, the museums, everything…
A few weeks back I was just up in Chicago for some wrestling and it was 80 degrees with the wind off of the lake (and it was in the upper 90s if you were further from the lake), top down, cruising Lakeshore (or lurching from red light to red light), and soaking it all in. It’s a huge city. It will have crime and problems. But it’s one of America’s great cities with sports, entertainment, culture, museums, people, jobs, etc.
And it will be an amazing backdrop for NASCAR. I might have to head on up there.
And did anyone else have the new (and VERY green with eBay ads) site come up less than an hour ago? I posted a few things, but it’s all gone now that it’s back to the old site. (Same computer used both times)