As NASCAR looks to keep its stronghold in the Chicago market, variables have changed.
Once Chicagoland Speedway came off the schedule after 2019, the Windy City area did not see another race until the Chicago street course made its debut in 2023.
Weather-related challenges marred two of those street races, and eventually the event wasn’t renewed for the 2026 season. The sanctioning body ultimately pivoted and headed back to Joliet, Ill., but after this past weekend’s race, the future remains unclear.
Several markets have multiple races a year. Could Chicago be the next with the oval and street course both being on the schedule? James Krause and Thomas Dunn muse over that on this week’s 2-Headed Monster.
NASCAR Needs to Double Down in Chicago
For years now, NASCAR has tried desperately to find the answer to the question of how to get fans of old back into the sport.
The answer has been a balancing act of turning back the clock while looking toward the future. The schedule has been a reflection of that, mixing in “old-school” tracks like North Wilkesboro Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium into its schedule while taking bold leaps into new territory with street course races and a venture to Mexico.
Why choose which direction to go in with Chicago when you can have both? Why not run the NASCAR Cup Series on the Chicago street course while another national series runs the night before at Chicagoland Speedway?
While there were logistical issues with both, it’s fair to say both tracks have provided some entertaining racing in recent years. The street course provides some of the most technical driving you’ll see while also having an element of chaos with its tight confines. Meanwhile, Chicagoland may not be “old” compared to North Wilkesboro or Bowman Gray, but the surface is. And it created some really exciting racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday night (July 4).
Would there be logistical challenges? Of course. Both facilities saw their share of that when they ran standalone. But it’s absolutely possible, as NASCAR has done it for a while in another marquee Midwest racing market: Indianapolis. On a summer Sunday, the fans pack Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a race that, at least at one time, was the main challenger to the Daytona 500 in terms of prestige and spectacle. But when the sun went down the nights prior, the O’Reilly Series or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series would be at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park just a few miles down the road in Clermont for old-school short track racing.
Downtown Chicago to Joliet is a fair bit more of a drive — potentially an hour more, depending on traffic — but it could scratch the itches of both types of race fans.
You like the sights and sounds of stock cars through Grant Park?
You like seeing them slip and slide on old asphalt at 170 miles per hour?
You like both?
NASCAR, if they continue to keep the fans in mind, can give you both.
And if NASCAR insists on having a support race downtown, series schedulers can really get wild. We’ve seen Cup cars ripping around Chicago. What about the Trucks? What about the ARCA Menards Series? What if NASCAR tells IMSA it’ll babysit the Mazda MX-5’s for the weekend? The possibilities for spectacle are endless. – James Krause
NASCAR Should First Find Its Windy City Lane
Oversaturation has been a big topic within the NASCAR community these last couple of years. Select tracks like Dover Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Pocono Raceway have had their dates downsized with a lack of appetite for a second race.
One of the big questions leaving Chicagoland Speedway this weekend is what exactly does the sport decide to do with a major media market? Needless to say, not having a foothold at all a la 2021 and 2022 cannot happen.
From my perspective, NASCAR needs to iron out what it wants from Chicago before it embarks on a different type of two-race set. It would absolutely be advantageous if Chicagoland and the Chicago street course make the schedule, but I’m not so sure everyone is ready for that. We’ve seen the adverse effects of schedule density take shape over the course of the mid-to-late 2010s, and NASCAR assuredly wants to keep its six-of-last-seven race sellouts trend going.
Does the sport want to continue its bread and butter in putting on 1.5-mile thrillers on ovals with Chicagoland? Alternatively, do more “event” type races like the Chicago street course in Grant Park draw more eyeballs and, more importantly, different communities to the track?
NASCAR could feasibly say yes to both of these scenarios, but for these next couple of seasons, I’d like to see them make a choice.
Suddenly, approaching two races in the same market can be a lot for some despite the potential for a differing audience. In acknowledging that reality, you need to build (or in this case rebuild) your brand in a place where it hasn’t been nurtured consistently in some time. Suddenly throwing multiple races in front of everyone doesn’t serve as the answer for me.
Beyond the racing product, you also need to nail down the logistics and fan experience. During the delays at Grant Park, fans were shuffled in and out due to the weather and ultimately left some chaos in its wake, despite NASCAR not controlling that set of initial circumstances. Similarly so, Chicagoland’s parking was a mess due to Saturday’s rain, and Denny Hamlin said on this week’s Action Detrimental episode that all nuts and bolts need to be screwed in for a race weekend.
From the big-picture lens, NASCAR can eventually double up in the Midwest’s biggest market. For now, it needs to make fans consistently want more, not only from the product’s perspective, but also the experience surrounding the weekend.
Whether NASCAR COO Ben Kennedy and company elect to stay on the oval for the next few years or alternate with the street course every other year on the schedule, the series needs to make this bout with Chicago consistently serious more than anything. – Thomas Dunn
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in Fort Wayne, Indiana covering minor league, college and high school sports. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.
Thomas is in his second year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon. He helps manage the 2-Headed Monster Column.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college athletics in the Bay Area, writing about the California Golden Bears and doing play by play broadcasting.
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