Are More Street Circuits in NASCAR’s Future?

Much of the NASCAR community is still buzzing after the Xfinity and Cup Series took on the newly minted 2.2-mile street course nestled within Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Sure, the skies unleashed torrential rainfall (record-setting, in fact), which led to flooding in certain areas of the city. And yes, that meant that several concerts and other adjacent events, an integral part of the anticipated festival-like weekend, had to be cancelled due to the inclement weather.

Despite it all, though, the action on the streets overwhelmingly prevailed, providing fans with unforgettable moments on the challenging street circuit and putting on a show unlike any that NASCAR fans had witnessed before. And to make matters even more intriguing, it was NASCAR newcomer Shane van Gisbergen who made a remarkable debut in the Cup event on Sunday, winning the race and becoming the first Cup driver to do so on their debut since Johnny Rutherford won the Daytona 500 in 1963.

So, through all of this, the question now begs to be asked: Do street courses like this one have a place in NASCAR’s future?

NASCAR has made it blatantly clear that they want to expand their reach across the United States beyond their core fan base, and they’re willing to think outside the box to do it. The exhibition race in Los Angeles—the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum—is proof of that, and the efforts to execute an event on the streets of Chicago have taken things one step further in that regard.

Also, this year’s event in Chicago gave us the most-watched NASCAR Cup Series race on NBC in six years, since Indianapolis in 2017 (5.647 million viewers) and NBC Sports’ eighth-most watched race under its current rights agreement. It’s important to note that these numbers were achieved in spite of a lengthy weather delay at the beginning of the day, leading to a shortened race from 100 to 75 laps.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see NASCAR revisit this style of race in the future, whether it’s in Chicago or another city. Chicago likely didn’t see the full potential of the race’s economic impact due to the unfortunate weather they dealt with, but other cities may well be curious to find out what a race would do for their city. Could NASCAR take an event like this to Milwaukee? San Diego? Seattle? St. Louis? I’m sure NASCAR would like to find out if they’re on to something, even if these types of races draw criticism from the sport’s core fanbase.

As for the drivers, many seemed to enjoy their time in Chicago, including Kyle Larson, who said, “I hope the city enjoyed it enough to welcome us back because I felt like the buzz around the city the last handful of days was amazing. The crowd stuck around the whole race too. I mean, it was downpouring all race long and I was not sure what kind of crowd we were going to have once we got going and it was great.”

“I really hope we come back,” Penske’s Austin Cindric added. “The city of Chicago, everything that NASCAR has done to do this for the first time, I give it an A-plus by both parties. I think we all really enjoyed it and I think that we know it would have been bigger without the weather and with the concerts.”

Naturally, cost is always an issue to consider with these sorts of events. NASCAR undoubtedly spent a lot of money getting this weekend off the ground, but now that they’ve done so, one might think the cost of future events wouldn’t be so heavy now that a proof-of-concept has been delivered. And agreement is already in place for the next two races that Chicago will host through 2025, so it’s possible the cost on the logistics/operations side of things may not be as steep moving forward.

However, the contract between NASCAR and the city of Chicago was made with the city’s previous administration, and it includes opt-out agreements to terminate the deal. Many are wondering if Chicago’s current city officials, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, have interest in maintaining that deal, one that was criticized by activists, Chicago’s City Council, and some of the city’s residents due to concerns that the race would have only minimal benefits to the surrounding community.

Either way, the event in Chicago was an exciting one for many, even if it failed to deliver for others, and it drew in a lot of new eyes to the sport. That means if NASCAR is going to continue down a path of expansion by colouring outside the lines, more events like this could be coming our way, whether traditionalists like it or not.