This year marks the second consecutive year that the NASCAR Cup Series will race on the Chicago street course. Last year, the inaugural contest on the track brought a wild show, with a figurative monsoon throwing the event into chaos and the dimming light and slippery course adding to the overall experience.
Whether or not it was a good race may be up for debate, but the July 2 affair came across as a captivating event, even if the rain waylaid the schedule a bit. Of course, rain and the Independence Day race have been conjoined since 1959, when NASCAR began consistently holding the Firecracker 400.
And what we learned over the past couple of seasons is that rain and racing go together like Chinese food and chocolate pudding, or cocaine and waffles. Thanks, Cal Naughton, Jr. The rain tire experiment in New Hampshire a couple of races ago gave us another data point in thinking about how NASCAR and rain have yet to find the same relationship that Formula 1 has, but the live-testing element sure is fascinating.
This time around in Chicago, the forecast indicates that rain might not be the same influence, with a potential appearance on the lower side. Then again, one of the axioms regarding weather in the Midwest is, give it 15 minutes and see if it is still the same. But really, the focus here is on how, since jettisoning what had been a “traditional” date on the calendar, the race has become a nomadic, underwhelming race on a day meant for celebrating the very spectacle that is America.
Think about it: from 1959 to 2019, the second Daytona International Speedway race was held on or near July 4. I am not going to stoke the silliness of tradition because tradition is itself a constructed idea that we are willing to believe. After all, we are told that it is tradition and that to go against tradition is, somehow, bad.
Some traditions are terrible and should have vanished ages ago. Some traditions take longer than others to reconsider. Do you remember the days when the lap-down cars used to line up on the inside racing line on restarts? That seems like lunacy at this point, but for years, that was the norm. Think about how drivers used to race back to the start-finish line, a foolish practice that was finally done away with probably a little too late.
Many things in sports are traditions because that’s just the way it is. Just the way it is, seems to sit as shorthand for unwillingness to rethink or find new means of doing something. For a change, however, just the way it is, seems to work for NASCAR around July 4.
No offense to Road America or the Windy City, but these midwestern road course tracks do not generate the hype and allure of Daytona. They’re lovely placeholders and fun events, and for NASCAR to do something that seems almost revolutionary by somehow putting together a race on the streets of Chicago is a minor miracle. Give NASCAR a modicum of credit for pulling off that one.
But still, racing at Daytona near Independence Day just feels right. The speed. The opulence of the arena. The idiocy of the proverbial Big One, itself mirroring the silliness of the massive fireworks displays that dot the continent as the country celebrates itself. Daytona is the big stage, made bigger when the summer stop began hosting the race under the lights in 1998.
The nighttime extravaganza heightened the speed and the crashes, the pageantry and drama. Now, that did not mean that issues did not arise. Over the course of the last decade of the July Firecracker 400, six of the races were affected by rain in some capacity – ranging from shortened races, having the event delayed, or even having it pushed to a new day. It says something when it is more predictable for the rain to alter the race than for it to be run on time. Florida and rain in July is about as predictable as Michigan and snow in January or Denny Hamlin having a stellar season and again missing out on the championship. Some things are just how it is.
And it’s time to bring Daytona back to how it is. If the goal was to avoid the challenges of weather-affected racing, the idea has faltered. Argue about global warming all you want, if you will, but the weather over the past few years has become more volatile. In 2023, rain toyed with 17 races. If that’s the norm, then we might as well take our chances with the Florida downpours.
The big difference with Daytona and the road courses is that the wet-weather tires will do nothing to keep the show going at the 2.5-mile monster. Once the engineers figure out the way around that problem, then let’s get it going.
Anyway, left, right, liberal, conservative, straight, queer, religious, agnostic, and/or atheist, enjoy your holiday and may the racing be entertaining.
About the author
As a writer and editor, Ava anchors the Formula 1 coverage for the site, while working through many of its biggest columns. Ava earned a Masters in Sports Studies at UGA and a PhD in American Studies from UH-Mānoa. Her dissertation Chased Women, NASCAR Dads, and Southern Inhospitality: How NASCAR Exports The South is in the process of becoming a book.
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Street racing and late start times are lunacy, I’m not giving Nascar credit for anything except lunacy. Remember that big TV contract increase with viewership going down!! Tv controls Nascar because the France family is about nothing but money for them. They’ve told the owners, it’s OUR money, forget a bigger split. That’s all you have to know about making $ense in Nascar $.
For the love of God, please bring the Firecracker 400 back to Daytona
It’s about time. Thanks
Great read,agreed!
How often has NA$CAR reversed their bad decisions?
Thank you…I don’t know why they mess with history and tradition. That race was always run on the fourth early…like 10am start. Then people would go and do they’re cookouts or go to the beach etc.
Yeah, been a NA$CAR fan many years but they are so dis-accociated from the fan base that made them. Like having the Busch Clash in a football stadium. Next they’ll be putting jumps in the stadium instead of letting them put on a great show during speedweeks at Daytona
Some tradition is good and I miss the firecracker 400 at Daytona but even though I rarely side with the powers to be at NASCAR I do get it………July/Daytona Beach Florida/ heat/misery yeah I as a driver would not want to do a race in Daytona Beach during the daytime in July prolly 145 degrees in the car…..ouch