NASCAR In Chicago
Sports, news and entertainment coverage on the 2023 NASCAR Chicago Street Race and how its presence downtown affects the city and its residents.
Race weekend & festival updates
Before the Chicago Street Race, fans fled for shelter in garages and coffee shops as it rained buckets on the course.
After the heavy rain finally let up in the late afternoon Sunday, NASCAR’s big event was won by van Gisbergen after a wild, chaotic race in downtown Chicago.
Impact on the city
Charges are pending against a man who allegedly drove onto the NASCAR Chicago Street Race course on Saturday night after the day’s race was canceled early…
With crowds expected to flock to the lakefront for the Fourth of July races, CPD says off-duty officers and those from other districts will be deployed to direct traffic downtown.
The Sun-Times and WBEZ’s coverage of the Grant Park 220 and NASCAR’s first race weekend in Chicago.
The closing of major thoroughfares for the stock car race in Grant Park will present challenges in getting patients quickly to area hospitals.
Whether a sporting event or an “endurance contest,” NASCAR’s first ever street race could showcase the city at its best and provide a long-term payoff.
The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium announced their hours of operation for June 28 through July 3.
NASCAR kicks off this weekend but it’s not the only show in town, proving Chicago can absorb the tourism and meeting business.
What people are saying
The Xfinity Series’ Loop 121 race never really got anywhere before being postponed due to weather. As for the main race — the Grant Park 220 — Cup Series drivers had some gripes after qualifying.
Still hard to understand why the circuit chose Chicago for its first street race.
Cars themselves are the epitome of the USA, the essence of us. Everything a car lets you do, everything you can do in a car, everything you can do to a car — it’s the stuff that makes you feel free, in control, beyond the law, fast.
Are those cars and drivers ready for us? Are we ready for them?
NASCAR is expecting Chicagoans to pay for the privilege of watching stock cars race.
Sun-Times readers sing the praises of NASCAR.
“Racing through the city streets, very narrow, I honestly don’t know how it’s all going to work out,” Bubba Wallace said.
More on the drivers
“If one of those [manhole covers] pops up a little bit,” Chase Elliott said, “you’re going to destroy something pretty bad.”
While The Loop 121 race was cut short due to lightning, the drivers have a better sense of the road conditions for completing the race tomorrow. “It’s…
“The sooner we just kind of understand the gravity of the event and not get too caught up in the on-track stuff,” Hamlin said, “the better we’re going to be.”
Denny Hamlin won the pole Saturday for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race. Hamlin, in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 89.557 mph was the fastest time and…
Jordan is a co-owner of 23XI Racing, which will have a pair of drivers — Wallace and Tyler Reddick — in Sunday’s Grant Park 220 downtown street race.
The Chicago Street Race might be the first of its kind, but the circuit does have a rich racing history in Illinois.
Yes, this means we all have to root for the No. 7 Camaro on Saturday.
Johnson’s team announced he has withdrawn from this weekend’s Chicago Street Race.
Suarez has been a barrier-breaking star as the sport’s first Mexican-born driver to win a Cup Series race and has established himself as a perennial top-20 driver.
What the heck are we in for with this Grant Park 220 business?
The two-time Daytona 500 champion stopped by Chicago as other drivers offered ride-alongs on the track in an SUV. Earnhardt rated each bump, crest and imperfection.
Like the JC Brooks Band earlier in the day, The Black Crowes started their set late and also cut it abruptly, only offering 40 minutes of the hour they had slated for their set.
Using a cellphone app, Sun-Times reporters measured more than 110 decibels of noise at various points of NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race course, which is about as loud as having someone shout directly in your ear.
Hamlin’s time of 89.557 MPH topped the field for the fastest lap in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race.
Duane Tabinski, 53, had been hired to produce audio for “pre-race celebrations” at Chicago’s NASCAR race this weekend when he died of after contacting electrical wires, according to autopsy results. He’s survived by his wife, five children and seven grandchildren.
Following its “radio-style” blueprint from Watkins Glen, NBC will position commentators in four spots on the city streets, in addition to the pit reporters and studio crew.
Duane Earl Tabinski 53, suffered a medical emergency about 11:30 a.m. Friday in the 500 block of South Columbus Drive.
The bustle was palpable less than 24 hours before drivers start their engines.
Maybe this will help get all our motors running.
The temporary 2.2-mile course around Grant Park is lined with concrete barriers built in south suburban Lynwood.
Can this weekend’s race deliver the thrill of a Cutlass Classic falling from Marina Towers or a Porsche fleeing Guido the Killer Pimp?
For two days in a row, NASCAR has given out race tickets to thousands of people at events on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
NASCAR is equipping its race cars to handle a downpour, adding rain tires, windshield wipers and a red, blinking tail light.
Chicago-area students take part in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math course with hands-on racing time and a chance to build a component for an automobile.
The Cup Series’ only Black full-time driver brought insight and advice along with the No. 23 Toyota to Chicago, where he will compete Sunday in the Grant Park 220.
The 22-year-old NASCAR driver brought blankets to patients at Lurie Children’s and Mount Sinai hospitals Thursday. He also handed over $10,000 checks to each hospital from the NASCAR Foundation.
There is a strict NASCAR gate entry policy and all bags and patrons may be subject to search.
Though road trips are expected to be the preferred method of travel this holiday weekend with 2.5 million Illinoisans hitting the road, travelers are also catching flights, buses, trains and even cruises, AAA officials said.
NASCAR’s sole Black driver served as an ambassador ahead of the Chicago Street Race by bringing a taste of the track to die-hard fans and the NASCAR-curious.
People outside the track can catch glimpses of the race. And NASCAR Village in Butler Field will be open. Bars across the city will be hosting NASCAR watch parties.
When 40 stock car drivers hit the streets this weekend, their roaring V8s will be bellowing at levels that could hurt spectators’ hearing.
For Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event, drivers will race 100 laps around the 2.2 mile course. Each lap of the course has 12 turns, seven of which are 90 degrees.
How fast? Really dang fast, says Ray Evernham.
The first auto race ever held in the United States was flagged off on Nov. 28, 1895, from Jackson Park, near the site of the now Museum of Science and Industry.
The special performance by Roman Banks takes place prior to The Loop 121 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at 4 p.m. on July 1.
Uniting Voices Chicago will include more than 30 local performers.
NASCAR has begun work on all but two of its 13 grandstands and suites. But there’s still more work to do in the days before the July 1-2 races.
Several streets in Grant Park are being transformed into a high-speed race track as the city prepares for the NASCAR race and related events the first weekend in July.
Eighteen bus routes will detour around the Loop over the NASCAR Street Race weekend on July 1-2.