One of the highest-profile stops on the NASCAR circuit will not be on the schedule next year.
NASCAR will not run the Chicago Street Race next season, but hopes to resume the event the following year, race organizers said Friday. The race has taken place for three-straight years on the weekend adjacent to July 4, necessitating the shutdown of several roads in the nation’s third-largest city.
In a statement Friday, race organizers said they would work with the City of Chicago to “explore a new potential date” for the race.
The Chicago Street Race was immediately one of the biggest hits in recent NASCAR history, debuting with 4.62 million viewers on NBC in 2023 — the second-largest audience of that season, behind only the Daytona 500. Viewership slipped to 3.79 million in year two, owing in part to a lengthy rain delay, but that still trailed only the prior year’s race as NBC’s largest NASCAR audience in the past four years.
This year’s edition moved from NBC to TNT, falling to 2.1 million in its cable debut — a figure that was surpassed by the comparably low-profile Sonoma race a week later (2.2M).
The Chicago Street Race is just one of several unique additions to the NASCAR schedule in recent years, joining the preseason “Clash” from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — which was run twice — and this year’s debut of a race in Mexico City.
NASCAR is widely expected to add a race in San Diego next year that could be a replacement for Chicago. Kelly Crandall of RACER reported Thursday that a deal has been reached for a San Diego event, with an announcement set for as soon as next week.