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 2.2-mile street course nestled within Grant Park in downtown Chicago. Sure, the skies unleashed torrential (record-setting, in fact) rainfall 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 canceled due to the inclement weather.

Despite it all though, and depending on who you ask of course, the action on the streets overwhelmingly prevailed, providing fans with unforgettable moments on the challenging street circuit. And to make matters even more intriguing, versatile NASCAR newcomer Shane van Gisbergen 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 asking: Do street courses like this one have a place in NASCAR’s future?

As far as I can see, NASCAR has made it blatantly clear that they want to expand their reach across the United States beyond their core fanbase. 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 Chicago event gave us the most-watched NASCAR Cup Series race on NBC in six years, since Indianapolis in 2017 (5.647 million) and NBC Sports’ eighth-most watched race under its current rights agreement. It’s also important to note that these numbers were achieved in spite of a weather delay at the start and a shortened race due to sunset (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, 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 a city like 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 more traditional 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,” 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 as well. NASCAR undoubtedly spent a lot of money to get this thing off the ground, but now that they have, you would think the cost of future events wouldn’t be so heavy now that an established infrastructure is in place. The template has now been made and used successfully for the next two races that Chicago will host (the contract that NASCAR has with the city of Chicago extends to 2025), so 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 to go down a path of expansion and embrace colouring outside the lines more than usual, more events like this may well and truly be coming our way, whether the traditionalists like it or not.