Chicago To Host NASCAR's First Street Course Cup Series Race In 2023

CHICAGO — NASCAR has never hosted a street course in its nearly 75-year history, but that will change next year when Chicago hosts a Cup Series race through the streets of downtown, officials announced on Tuesday.

Chicago will host the NASCAR Cup Series on July 2, 2023, in a street course that will flow through downtown streets over a weekend that will take place over two days, NASCAR officials said.

The race will be run on what NASCAR officials call a course like no other and will open up the city to a brand of racing it hasn't seen before in what city and NASCAR officials hope is a one-of-kind event that will drive tourism before the Independence Day weekend.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said discussions with NASCAR officials started a year ago. She said the city couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring a Cup race to Chicago and said the excitement in Chicago will be "off the charts."

Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing and development and strategy, said in a news conference Tuesday that adding Chicago to NASCAR’s schedule is part of a plan to continue to grow the sport in innovative ways.

“We want to be bold and innovative as we think about new venues and new concepts that we’re going to,” Kennedy said on Tuesday. “This is No. 1 on the list for us right now. It’s certainly going to be the most anticipated event of our season and one of the biggest sporting events in our country in 2023.”

The 2.2-mile, 12-turn racecourse will pass along several streets in downtown Chicago including Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Drive, Jackson Drive, and East Congress Plaza Drive, NASCAR officials said.

The proposed course will start on Columbus Drive in front of Buckingham Fountain, an area that will also serve as a pit road. From there, drivers will go south to Balbo Drive and then head east toward Lake Shore Drive.

Drivers will race south along Lake Michigan before turning west on Roosevelt Road, then racing north on Columbus Drive in an approximate figure eight that will include a portion of South Michigan Avenue before reaching the start/finish line.

Terms of the deal have not been announced, but NASCAR will pay rental fees to the Chicago Park District for the use of Grant Park and will handle ticket sales and will build the track. Tickets for the event are scheduled to go on sale later this year.

“This is a huge, huge sports town — I think that goes without saying,” Lightfoot said at a downtown news conference “The opportunity to bring something as unique as NASCAR to the city of Chicago, I think it’s going to be one of the most iconic racecourses – maybe ever.”

She added: “The opportunity to really ignite our tourism with a new, iconic event on the calendar was a no-miss opportunity.”

NASCAR announced on Tuesday that the Chicago event will replace Road America, which has been held in July in Elkhart Lake, Wis., over the past two years. In the past, NASCAR has hosted events in Chicago, including at Soldier Field in the 1950s as well as at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, which hosted events from 2001-2019.

But the street course will be a game-changer, according to NASCAR officials, who earlier this year introduced an event at the Los Angeles Coliseum before announcing the Chicago event on Tuesday. Officials said they hope to create an event-driven atmosphere around the race weekend as the sport looks to expand its already large fan base to another sector of racing —this time in the streets of the nation’s third-largest city.

“We want to continue to be bold and innovative as people think about NASCAR in the future,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said Tuesday.

“But this announcement is just unbelievable.”

Bubba Wallace, one of the sport’s biggest stars called the announcement of the Chicago street course “monumental for our sport”.

While most NASCAR races follow oval tracks, the idea of racing through a downtown metropolitan area will create a lot of excitement, Wallace said.

“There are a lot of a lot of unknowns and if you’ve been following my journey, I’ve always said the unknowns are what excite me,” Wallace said on Tuesday. “I don’t know what to expect going into this deal. …but it’s going to be exciting.”

“This has fun written all over this.”