{"id":24361,"date":"2025-06-29T11:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T11:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24361\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T11:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T11:24:15","slug":"nascar-has-embraced-chicago-backdrop-but-will-it-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24361\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR has embraced Chicago backdrop. But will it return?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NASCAR Chicago Street Race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If it sounds a bit edgy, that\u2019s certainly by design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the race has had its challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First it was the smoky haze of Canadian wildfires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then it was rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And finally, it was the darkness of nightfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that was just the inaugural race in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, and the noise and the street closures that lasted for weeks before and after the race. And most folks who live in the immediate vicinity of the Grant Park racecourse were not NASCAR fans before the race and probably aren\u2019t now either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like architecture, much of the appeal of motorsports is aesthetic. The cars are sleek, or at least as sleek as purpose-built vehicles molded to resemble Chevrolet Camaros, Ford Mustangs and Toyota Camrys can be. And they are as bright and colorful as each sponsor is willing. And the speed and the sound add to the spectacle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With each of these elements, the NASCAR Chicago Street Race is an exceptionally well-conceived and packaged design mirror of ourselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s history with auto racing stretches back to the earliest automobile race<\/a> held in the United States on Thanksgiving Day in 1895. Fun fact: The Jackson Park to Evanston course traversed Michigan Avenue and included two blocks that are part of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race course. Nearby Soldier Field hosted races from 1935 to 1970, including NASCAR in 1956 and 1957. More recently, the now-defunct Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero fielded IndyCars and some of NASCAR\u2019s minor league series from 1999 to 2002, and both major series have raced at Joliet\u2019s Chicagoland Speedway, which is now owned by NASCAR.<\/p>\n

But what these races lacked was the Chicago backdrop to the racing \u2014 something NASCAR has completely embraced during the last three years.<\/p>\n

\"BudBud Koehler is the winner of the 30-lap featured stock car race at Soldier Field on May 12, 1968, in Chicago. (Ed Feeney\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Because what\u2019s most important is how it looks on TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Almost every sporting event held in the city, whether it\u2019s at Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, Rate Field or the United Center, will show Grant Park and the Loop from a helicopter-mounted camera sometime during the event. But holding NASCAR\u2019s race in the park allows them to spotlight the city in a very particular way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s image is no longer just Willis Tower and the building formerly known as John Hancock Center. Newer tall buildings, including Trump Tower and the St. Regis, are more dominant from NASCAR\u2019s Grant Park perch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CarsCars race in the Xfinity Series during the first day of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race on July 6, 2024, at Grant Park. (Vincent Alban\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Michigan Avenue street wall, long the classic Chicago skyline scene, has been extended in recent years by new development south of Ida B. Wells Drive including Helmut Jahn\u2019s striking 1000M<\/a>, Krueck + Sexton\u2019s folded glass-faced Spertus Institute and Rafael Vi\u00f1oly\u2019s distinctive, if mediocre, NEMA. And there are the older buildings along Michigan Avenue as well: Adler & Sullivan\u2019s Auditorium Building, Solon Beman\u2019s Fine Arts Building, Burnham and Root\u2019s Railway Exchange Building, and John Moutoussamy\u2019s Johnson Publishing Co. building, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

NASCAR and the Chicago Street Race highlight all of these distinctive \u2014 and very Chicago \u2014 buildings in a way that will endure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The best-known street course in the world has been in use for almost a century: the Grand Prix of Monaco in Monte Carlo. That enclave of wealth on the Mediterranean certainly doesn\u2019t need the grand prix in much the same way that Chicago doesn\u2019t need the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s interesting to consider them together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"RenaultRenault Team’s Danish driver Kevin Magnussen drives past the Monte Carlo Casino during a practice run for the Monaco Grand Prix in Monaco on May 26, 2016. (Pascal Guyot\/Getty-AFP)<\/p>\n

The backdrop in Monaco includes the Belle Epoque Casino, the Mediterranean harbor, small shop fronts for luxury good purveyors and concrete cliffs filled with the pied-\u00e0-terre of the uber-rich. The NASCAR Chicago Street Race\u2019s background is, let\u2019s say, different. But it\u2019s just as compelling. And while Formula 1\u2019s multimillion-dollar bespoke cars reflect Monaco\u2019s place in the world economy, NASCAR\u2019s \u201cstock\u201d cars are probably the best expression of Chicago. A bit brash, a bit ordinary, a lot noisy and prone to wrecks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monaco is so good at its build that traffic navigates the racecourse within hours of on-track activity each day of the race weekend. It\u2019s too early to expect that here, but the build-out of the track and its support structures has become shorter with each year, reflecting NASCAR\u2019s efficiency and learning from experience. <\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the racing itself. I had my doubts about how NASCAR\u2019s full body cars would race on this layout. But even with dreadful weather both years, it\u2019s proved to be a very entertaining track. The wide straightaways along Columbus and DuSable Lake Shore drives promote good side-by-side action and passing. Although the two one-block-long stretches on Michigan Avenue are good for photography, they are far too narrow to be either challenging or conducive to racing. But while the portion of track between them, the semicircular stretch through Congress Plaza, doesn\u2019t promote much passing, it is a great place to see up close how difficult these cars are to drive. The change in elevation \u2014 up and then down \u2014 while navigating a broad left turn really gets these cars to the edge of control, and it\u2019s quite entertaining to watch them skate through this section. <\/p>\n

And unlike the open wheel cars of IndyCar and Formula 1, not every contact between cars is likely to slow the race with a full-course yellow flag. Stock cars can often take some bumping and continue on without major incident. And it\u2019s proved to be a safe track as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FansFans cheer after Alex Bowman wins the NASCAR Chicago Street Race in Grant Park on July 7, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

It will not be surprising if NASCAR announces in the coming days that it won\u2019t be back in Chicago next year. The initial contract runs its course with next week\u2019s race, although there are options for two additional years if NASCAR and the city agree to continue. The sanctioning body has let several other nontraditional races lapse after just a few years, and they\u2019re reportedly in talks with San Diego<\/a> about a street race for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Presumably there would be a lot less grit involved, but probably a lot better weather in store.<\/p>\n

Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan\u2019s biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.<\/p>\n

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NASCAR Chicago Street Race.\u00a0 If it sounds a bit edgy, that\u2019s certainly by design.\u00a0 And the race…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[8541,11890,21905,1406,1269,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-24361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-columnists","9":"tag-commentary","10":"tag-edward-keegan","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-opinion","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114766404910814491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}