NASCAR Takes Over Grant Park & Downtown

by Suzanne Hanney

NASCAR Takes Over Grant Park & Downtown

NASCAR's roots date to the Prohibition era, but in planning their 75th anniversary, officials were looking for an "iconic" 21st century city, so they chose Chicago, says NASCAR Chicago President Julie Giese. Chicago was already one of the top three markets for their fan base, so a July 1 -2 auto race on downtown streets, around Grant Park, was also a good way to introduce the sport to new audiences.

NASCAR’s very first street race will feature a 2.2-mile course on Michigan Avenue, Lake Shore and Columbus Drives with 12 leftand righthand turns, starting and ending at Buckingham Fountain, and showcasing landmarks like Lake Michigan and the Art Institute lions. NASCAR officials were looking at Chicago even during the pandemic, when they plotted a virtual street race, Giese said in an NBC Chicago video hosted on YouTube.

The racing and music festival is “all about Chicago and having a good time,” a reinvention of the auto race experience, Giese said. There will be four full concerts – by The Chainsmokers and The Black Crowes July 1, Miranda Lambert and Charley Crockett July 2 – food, culture, racing, music.

“It’s the first time for the City of Chicago and NASCAR, [which] will be part of something that’s never been done before in a sport that has been around 75 years,” she said. A Ferris wheel will harken back to the original one at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and there will be free events in Butler Field.

Saturday, July 1 at 4 p.m., the Rising Stars of NASCAR will compete in the 55-lap (121-mile) NASCAR Xfinity Series Loop 121 race. Sunday at 4:30 p.m., the biggest names in racing will be in the 100-lap NASCAR Cup Series Inaugural Grant Park 220.

The Chicago street course brings to life last summer’s virtual, eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, according to the Charlotte Observer. Just as important, the street course means that NASCAR officials are responding to competition from Formula 1 racing, where open-wheel cars zoom around city streets. F1 has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S. since the 2019 Netflix documentary, “Drive to Survive.”

Transporting the sport to a downtown filled with other events also expands its representation into the future, driver Bubba Wallace said. “You’re going to get that next Bubba Wallace that’s sitting in the stands like I was when I was 9 years old to be like, ‘Hey I want to do this one day, but I want to be better.’”

The only question on the streets is, “Is Chicago getting enough in return?” That’s what candidates in the recent mayoral election -- winner Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas -- asked. Intermittent lane closures began June 18 on Balbo, Columbus, and

DuSable Lake Shore Drives, Roosevelt Road, and Michigan Avenue, which added to congestion caused by construction on the John F. Kennedy Expressway and hindered access to the Museum Campus. DuSable Drive will begin reopening July 2, with all track walls and fences down by July 15, according to https://www.chicago. gov/city/en/depts/oem/provdrs/ emerg_mang/news/2023/april/ the-city-of-chicago-and-nascarannounce-traffic-plan-for-nascar-.html

NASCAR has a three-year contract with the city, and will pay a $500,000 fee this year, $550,000 in 2024 and $605,000 in 2025, according to theathletic.com In addition, the city will receive $2 for each ticket sold and a percentage of net commissions on concessions and souvenir sales. NASCAR will also pay a $50,000 security deposit for any damages to Grant Park. Giese said that NASCAR will also contribute to Chicago Public School STEAM and STEM programs.

Giese, who moved to Chicago last August to head a staff of more than a dozen, is playing a long game with NASCAR’s $50 million investment in the July 1-2 event. She meets almost daily with civic and business leaders over logistics, road closures, expenses and revenue for the city, corporate sponsorships, even the postponing of the annual Taste of Chicago until September. Previously, Giese was project manager for the three-year, $400 million renovation of NASCAR’s marquee Daytona International Speedway; she has also overseen major renovations to Talladega Superspeedway, Phoenix Raceway and Richmond Raceway.

“The message that I’ve shared in every meeting, every conversation that I’ve had is that we are committed to putting on the most spectacular event for the city of Chicago and for our industry,” Giese said on theathletic.com. “And we are committed to making sure everyone knows what to expect. That’s a big reason why we’ve set up an office here, why we have a full-time staff here in

Chicago that is dedicated to this event, that’s out and about talking to the community, being community partners, working on a lot of community giveback initiatives. Those are the things that the more we can do, it just puts us in a really good spot moving forward.”

NASCAR officials also quote their study by CSL International, which says that 100,000 visitors watching the race could have a $113 million impact on the local economy, according to theathletic. com

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin agreed, in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times hosted on the Chamber’s website. “Today, as our city continues to recover from the pandemic, we must embrace this spirit of big thinking if we, as a community, want to revitalize and diversify our economy…But this is not just another feather in the cap of Chicago’s rich history as a sports town – it’s also big business, and perhaps even an economic and reputational imperative.”

NASCAR – the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing –was formally incorporated in February 1948 after its first official race in Daytona Beach, FL. A few months earlier, in late 1947, Bill France Sr. organized a meeting of drivers, officials and promoters at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to create a sanctioning body for stock car racing.

The roots of stock car racing are in the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s, according to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. In order to transport then-illegal alcohol, bootleggers had to elude federal agents and police. Their cars looked ordinary, but the engines were modified for extra speed; floorboards and passenger seats were removed for extra liquor capacity, and extra suspension springs were added to handle the weight. “Rumrunners” also had to be good at both driving and mechanics. Spend too long on a flat tire, and you could wind up in jail.