This is the NASCAR Chicago street race in photos

Guest
By Guest Writer
Jul 6, 2023 | nascar, Street Circuit, Chicago, Xfinity Series, The Loop 121 | Posted in News and Notes | Never miss an article

Photography by Christina Merrill

Story by Christina Merrill

The NASCAR Chicago Street Race resulted in a number of firsts. The first street race in NASCAR history. The first Xfinity Series race deemed official before the halfway mark. The first New Zealander to win a Cup Series race.

Event promoters battled rainy conditions throughout the weekend.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 121 completed 25 laps before lightning delayed the event to Sunday morning. Severe rain prevented restarting the race, with officials calling it around 12:30 p.m. They declared Cole Custer the winner and the race official, despite it going less than halfway of the advertised 55 laps.

Various musicians and bands performed in between the times cars hit the track. Among them included JC Brooks Band and The Black Crowes. Unfortunately, weather conditions cancelled performances by The Chainsmokers, Miranda Lambert and Charley Crockett.

The Black Crowes perform at the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.

Heavy rainfall postponed the original 4:05 p.m. green-flag time for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Grand Park 220. Despite flash flood warnings and record rainfall, NASCAR was determined to make the race happen. With sunset at 8:28 p.m., their window to get the race in was closing.

Fans shelter from the rain under the Paddock Club.

With roads slick and the air damp, NASCAR dispatched trucks to dry the track. Pit crews used leaf blowers and brooms to get rid of excess water in their pit stalls.

A pit crew member uses a leaf blower to dry the track surface.

At 5:57 p.m., officials called the drivers to their cars. At 6:25 p.m., cars started to move off the pit road. The first street race in NASCAR Cup Series history was underway.

The damp city roads provided a challenge for many drivers, with Kyle Busch’s crash resulting in the first of nine cautions during the race. The 2.2-mile course that took drivers near iconic Chicago landmarks was already predicted to be difficult with its sharp turns. Turn 6 especially became a problem for Noah Gragson, with him crashing three times into the tire barriers and getting stuck twice.

Track Services helps Noah Gragson after he crashes on turn six.

Pole winner Denny Hamlin on turn six as the rain subsides.

With sunset approaching, series officials decided to shorten the race to 75 laps instead of the originally planned 100. Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time winner of the Supercars Championship in Australia and New Zealand, took the lead from Justin Haley on lap 70. A lap-75 caution resulted in a NASCAR overtime. Despite that, van Gisbergen held off Haley and third-place Chase Elliott for the victory. He became the first New Zealander to win a NASCAR Cup Series event and the first since 1963 to win in their Cup debut.

Celebration on Victory Lane.

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Comments
Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
7/6/23 12:05 p.m.

Rain aside, looks like it was quite the spectacle–in a good way.

If NASCAR does more street circuits in the future, where should they go? Detroit? Los Angeles? Miami?

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/6/23 12:10 p.m.

San Francisco, Tokyo, suburban Detroit, New York.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
7/6/23 12:12 p.m.

Surfer's Paradise, Townsville, Newcastle...give the top 5 drivers in the US NASCAR event a shot at a V8 Supercars race.

ChrisTropea
ChrisTropea Associate Editor
7/6/23 12:14 p.m.

I really want to see more NASCAR street circuts. This was a fun race to watch even with the weather issues. 

Much better to watch than a plate race for sure.

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy MegaDork
7/6/23 1:16 p.m.

When they announced the race last year I thought it was a terrible layout but in the end both the wife and I enjoyed watching it. 

There is rarely any racing shared on the news in Chicago so when all the media jumped on it I was worn down with all the hype.  But in the end it was a fun event.  

bumpsteer
bumpsteer Reader
7/6/23 2:44 p.m.

The race was fantastic. Super fun to watch the guys hanging the tail out the whole race on the exit of turn 5 and blast down to turn 6. Atmosphere was great when the cars were running.

Things NASCAR could have done better;

Track map: Did not make it clear at all where the GA boundary ended, there was a whole area on the map that seemed to be open and not part of the GA Plus ticket, but was inaccessible to GA. Was pretty bummed to not be able to get all the way out to turn 3 or 4 where there was some great action.

Be realistic and more communicative with fans: we got shooed around by event staff for over an hour Saturday before they even announced any updates to if the race was delayed, let alone postponed. It was especially frustrating to show up to the track Sunday morning at 9am for the chance to see the Xfinity race if the weather actually broke, just to find the gates closed and continued delays, once it was already clear from the weather that it wasn't going to run. Lots of us got drenched waiting because we didn't want to risk wasting half of a very expensive event ticket (whose value had already been diminished by the cancelation of half the concerts scheduled).

GA had basically no covered spaces once you were actually inside the gates for folks to get out of the rain, and umbrellas were not allowed. It rained so hard my brand new rainjacket actually soaked completely through after about 3 hours. Once we finally sought out a tent to shelter under (some folks near turn 6 elected to relocate the umbrellas and tables from a food area over to the fence - event staff really didn't know how to deal with that one), for some reason they weren't selling drinks? I have no clue why the event would choose not to sell their overpriced booze to wet, cold, bored people.  

I'm just glad we rushed back to the fence once they called drivers to their cars, absolutely would have blown to have been tip-toeing to see over people even on the straights, having paid as much for tickets as most of us did (ignoring the ~7000 vouchers NASCAR handed out the week before). A lot of folks probably did not get a good view of any of the race. Also there were really only two screens and they weren't visible from the track, so you were hosed if you didn't know where to look on your phone for track feed and/or have a scanner. Most people who were new to NASCAR would have had to choose to either watch a single file of cars passing by on a straight every couple minutes, or to pay a lot to watch the race on a big TV.

Overall, a very cool event in concept, the first half of the Xfinity race gave a glimpse of what it could have been if the weather held up. The cup race was great. Chicago is a neat city, glad I got to experience it, and the rain can't be helped, but for the cost of a GA ticket I was expecting a much more organized and thought-out event. 

Noddaz
Noddaz GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
7/6/23 3:17 p.m.

Is NASCAR in Baltimore a possibility?   devil

There has been racing in B'more before.

 

VolvoHeretic
VolvoHeretic GRM+ Memberand Dork
7/6/23 3:42 p.m.

Was half of the enjoyment of the race because of everybody tip toeing around the track in the wet? Instead of the usual bumper car push and shove.

Advan046
Advan046 UberDork
7/6/23 5:34 p.m.

In reply to bumpsteer :

Thanks for the descriptive spectator experience. I do hope they do a lessons learned and figure out what to do better versus just considering it a failure and walking away. (a la the ALMS race in DC) 

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