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.
Despite pushback from politicians and downtown residents, the race will be back under new financial terms.
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.
With less than three weeks to go before the big event, Chicago transportation officials say drivers will deal with merging lanes on 8 miles of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, between North Avenue and 47th Street.
Driver Ty Dillon’s No. 77 Chevrolet Camero ZL1 and his uniform will sport White Sox logos and colors for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race July 1-2.
SailGP kicks off its second year in the water off Navy Pier on Father’s Day weekend, racing 50-foot catamarans that reach highway speeds.
Crews began laying the new, nearly pitch-black pavement this month. The repaving will be completed in the next week, along with welding down manhole covers along the course.
NASCAR tweaked its Chicago street race plan after meeting with residents who live near the 2.2-mile racecourse.
Much of Grant Park will be closed to accommodate NASCAR. Now the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium have announced schedule changes because of road closures and expected crowds.
Piccolo School of Excellence in Humboldt Park is one of eight Chicago public schools receiving 24 Strider training bikes and helmets, plus online support to help the schools teach their kindergartners how to ride.
The city, in detailing downtown road closures tied to NASCAR earlier this week, has us thinking the motor sport extravaganza feels more and more like a lemon. Get ready to make lemonade, Chicago.
Chicago officials released details about rolling road closures leading up to the July 1-2 races, a 2.2-mile course that also will shut Columbus Drive and Michigan Avenue.
Still three months away, drivers at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, were already peeking at the first-of-its-kind race for NASCAR.
Based on details of NASCAR deal and a newly released study of Lolla’s economic impact, commissioned by the festival’s organizers, the Lolla deal looks more advantageous for the city.
The mayor must fix this mess before she leaves office.
Grant Park will be taken over from mid-May through mid-August by the Lollapalooza and Sueños music festivals and the NASCAR Chicago street race, raising neighborhood concerns about crowds, security, noise.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted for creating “planning disaster” by proposing 4th of July weekend food fest be moved to accommodate takeover of Grant Park by city’s new NASCAR race.
The Cup Series race will be named the Grant Park 220 and the Xfinity Series race will be The Loop 121.
The competition will challenge 22,000 K-12 students in 43 STEM schools to design a driving helmet. CPS will also integrate a NASCAR-themed science unit into its 8th-grade curriculum next year.
The race should also attract many people from out of town — 65% of the expected 100,000 attendees — and fill up downtown hotel rooms and show scenic parts of downtown across the world to millions of viewers.
The Chainsmokers, Miranda Lambert, the Black Crowes and Charley Crockett are set to appear at the event July 1-2 in Grant Park. Tickets go on sale Feb. 2.
Among other things, the ordinance would require a City Council order for any athletic event or special event that allows the closure of a state route, an arterial street or more than four blocks of any other public way.
Something this important is worthy of public legislative debate.
The terms are not as generous as in a new 10-year extension with Lollapalooza, but the mayor said it “doesn’t make sense” to compare the events, calling the music festival a “phenomenon unto itself.”
Alderpersons Pat Dowell (3rd), Sophia King (4th) and Brendan Reilly (42nd) are upset NASCAR could occupy part of Grant Park for two weeks next summer.
The race would be run on a 2.2-mile course north of Roosevelt Road, along Columbus Drive, South DuSable Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue, as far north as Jackson Boulevard.
As the mayor’s office moves toward signing a contract with the racing agency, the deal must leave the city with more than just noise, spectacle and exhaust.
The Athletic, a website devoted to sports coverage, disclosed the apparent agreement between the Lightfoot administration and NASCAR with no mention of the specific route.