This weekend, NASCAR will take to the streets of Downtown Chicago for the third time. Hopefully, it will have a little better luck with the weather. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams are in the middle of a four-week break before restarting their season at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
NASCAR Chicago Street Race TV Schedule
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Practice: 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying: 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: 1 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/Max
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 2 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/Max
- NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110: 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
- NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165: 2 p.m. ET Sunday on TNT/TruTV/Max
It’s unclear what the future will be for the Chicago Street Race in NASCAR, but for this weekend, NASCAR will take to the streets in downtown Chicago for the third time. The weekend will see the first non-Daytona 500 DNQ in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2018, so qualifying will mean a little more this weekend.
Teams will be arriving Thursday night in Chicago into a marshalling yard, but won’t be able to park on DuSable Lake Shore Drive until Friday morning. Friday will not have any on-track activity, but teams will have time in the garage to work on their cars and get through inspection.
Practice is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET with live coverage on both TruTV and Max. This will be a regular practice setup like any other race weekend. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Grant Park 165 will begin with NASCAR Nation Pre-Race at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on TNT, TruTV and Max. Race coverage will begin at 2 p.m. ET on TNT and Max with the green flag around 2:20 p.m. ET. Note that this is more than three hours earlier than last year.
On TruTV, viewers will have access to the AltCast, which will be focused on the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. That will also be simulcast on Max.
Supporting the NASCAR Cup Series will be the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Its on-track activity will only take place on Saturday.
Practice will be one 50-minute session with all teams taking place at the same time. That session will be at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning with live coverage on The CW App and The CW’s website. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards. Some CW affiliates may choose to air practice and qualifying live. Check your local listings to see if your affiliate is one of them.
Coverage of The Loop 110 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW. Race coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 4:40 p.m. ET.
What’s the Weather Looking Like?
Given the past two years in Chicago, this is the $128,000 question. Will this weekend get in without too much chaos?
The answer to that appears to be … maybe. What we know for sure is that it’s going to be hot and humid.
Saturday will be dry. It’ll also be very hot. The forecast is for sunny skies and a high around 95° with dewpoints likely in the 70s. If you’re going to be there, hydrate.
Sunday is the sketchier of the two days. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies with highs between 85-90°, but with a 50-70% chance of thunderstorms. The race starting at 1 p.m. local time will hopefully make it possible to complete the race before late afternoon thunderstorms arrive. If this were last year, this forecast would be trouble.
TV Ratings — Atlanta/Lime Rock
Saturday night’s broadcast of the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart earned a .78 rating with 1.546 million viewers. This is down 23.6% from last year, when 2.023 million tuned in. Then again, the race last year was in early September and aired on USA.
Those numbers only include TNT viewership. Given this number that SportsBusinessJournal’s Adam Stern reported, the AltCast on TruTV didn’t do all that great with 62,000 viewers. Max streaming viewership is unclear.
Also, unlike Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros. Discovery is not making replays of the races available on Max. You can replay the in-car cameras, but not the actual race broadcast.
Friday night’s Focused Health 250 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series was the lowest-rated race of the season. The race earned a .33 rating with 583,000 viewers. However, this race started late due to earlier lightning strikes, then was delayed for nearly 80 minutes early on due to more lightning. As a result, the race ended after midnight.
There is no viewership information available for FOX’s coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park. I can attest to the large crowd at the track, but not the TV audience.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.