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NASCAR's Chicago Street Race has been a high profile event since it was announced back in the summer of 2022. Since then a lot has changed but on this past Sunday we finally got to see the first NASCAR Cup Series street race ever in action. Even with a ton of good and some crazy storylines on and off of the track the future may be unsure for the unique event. So today we go over all angles of this historic race. The good, the bad, and the ugly of the Chicago Street Race…
Video Credits:
ABC 7 Chicago
CBS Chicago
David Robidoux
FOX Sports
Motorsports on NBC
NASCAR
NASCAR on FOX
NASCAR Productions
NascarAllOut
NBC Chicago
NBC Sports
Skewcar
Turner Sports
WGN News
13 WREX
Thumbnail Credits:
Getty Images
NASCAR
NASCAR Images
Sean Gardner
Outro Song:
Strange Animal (Crowder Remix) by Gowan
Songs:
Thunder (NASCAR Theme) by David Robidoux
#motorsports #racing #nascar
51 comments
Bring that track back and I’m happy for SVG getting the dub yesterday hope we see more opportunities of him in the near future. More road courses next season
Now imagine how much better and faster Shane could be if they were allowed to cater to his dominant side and custom built a car for him with a right hand side steering wheel with stick shift on his left side? he would have been more beast and at the very least another couple of seconds faster. Not to mention he said it himself he ”left a lot on the table” as he wasn’t fully comfortable with the brake pedal set up as well as other aspects of the car he couldn’t have as he would have wanted.
@nameless1873 Did Super Car build a left drive car for the Americans that tried it?
Regardless of whatever we think, I think we can agree seeing Shane Van Gisbergen win in his inaugural NASCAR start is completely badass!
It was really the only good thing about the whole damn weekend..
Yes, it makes you question the legitimacy of the guys he was racing against… How fast would these cars be without nepotism behind the wheel?
@Ike Aynt-Breathe To give you a bit of insight into how cup drivers compare to actual road racers, IMSA Amateur driver Ben Keating who was 49 at the time and didn’t start racing until after he was 35 was faster than Chase Elliott at the Rolex 24 while he was driving lesser equipment.
As a lifelong road racing fan, I am so proud that SVG was able to show just how talented drivers in this discipline really are!
Congrats to Shane van Gisbergen! He is proof that the age of the ringers is NOT dead!
Hopefully this opens the door for other touring/sports car racers like Nick Tandy, Antonio Garcia, Renger van der Zande, Bill Auberlen, Nicky Catsburg, and Richard Westbrook among countless others to get a proper chance in NASCAR as well.
Imagine who the successors to the road course ringer class of Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Brian Simo, Scott Pruett, Dorsey Schroeder, etc. could be.
@Ike Aynt-Breathe well the regulars did well here, i think, it’s just that SVG is a god on any race cars and raced in street and road courses a lot in Supercars. And it was a wet/damp track, something nascar almost never races on
I personally had fun watching this race and I hope NASCAR comes back next year and the weather will cooperate
And NOT make this the 4th of July race
@S.KullRandom 2nd Daytona Date race return to 4th of July Weekends become Daytona Road Course Night Race
@Robert Lynn no not the Daytona Road course as a night race. Pass.
Crazy how this race which served the same market as Chicagoland actually had a respectable in-person audience despite the once in a generation rainfall that nearly postponed the event. It’s almost as if there’s a reason they killed off the track in the middle of nowhere for a reason.
To a degree I agree but a lot had to do with the exceptional marketing of NASCAR and NBC.
Most of the spectators there were seeing their first Nascar race for the first time. This was not a typical Nascar race with typical fans
Lived in Chicago my whole life,
I had no idea they ran races here before.
They had way better marketing for this.
@pahwraiththats because what they called the chicagoland speedway was almost an hour from downtown. It was on the southern edge of Joliet.
I don’t know why they call Chicagoland in the middle of no where. Cause it’s an hour away from Chicago? There’s civilianization all around the track. Don’t make no sense
If we continue doing these road courses, I’d love to see lights on the car.
Race cars do need headlights because the track is not always lit
The Le Mans car had lights
@Angelo Garciawell this ain’t Le Mans is it
@camdog2520 u didn’t see the garage 56 car?
@Angelo Garcia garage 56 race in the cup last night?
Personally, this race was a lot better than I thought. I’m still considering this one of the greatest victories in NASCAR history
Depends on what you mean by it. There was a lot of luck in his victory and skill. If they didn’t shorten the race the guys who pitted wouldn’t have been as aggressive causin bell truex reddick to spin and make mistakes. Plus multiple fast guys got screwed in that pile up. He also had the best tires of the top 3-4 which is why he was flying past them. It was a great victory but I wouldn’t say one of the greatest. The greatest victory has to be truex at charlotte leading all but 4-6 laps. And this was isn’t even close. Eliot at the roval I’m 2019 screwing up half way and then driving past every single car under green. Yes there were cautions but he was on the same strat and tires as everyone else. Jeff Gordon going from 3 laps down to the win at martinsville. Dale Earnhardt from the back or middle pack to the win in 3 laps(forgot Daytona or talladega). I think you understand what hat I mean
@Timechanger ! Dont forget Bill Elliott coming back from two laps down under green to win the 1985 Winston 500.
@Scott Riley holy crap I completely forgot about that thank you. He definitely was the best before restrictor plates were put in
I was at the track and it was very good. I think a part of the ugly was the miss communication between Nascar and the city of Chicago when the race was on a lightning hold. Nascar rules says 30 minutes, but the City of Chicago’s policy is to evacuate and close the park. There weren’t too many places to shelter. Chicago police said to evacuate and the race was cancelled, but Nascar didn’t say anything like that on any social media, so we were all confused. The rain was something. Havent seen it rain like that since Chicagoland 2019 and some hurricanes when I used to live in Florida.
Funny how that works huh, two consecutive Cup races in northern Illinois (four years apart) burdened by heavy rain. I was at the Chicagoland ’19 race too.
I thought NASCAR’s first street race was a success, despite all the weather challenges. I think it should be held at Chicago at least one more year, maybe they’ll get great weather and everything that was scheduled, concerts and racing, will gone on without delays or cancellations and be an improvement from this year. Then they can try a new city because I think the demand from other cities will be there. But just one street race per year, don’t ruin a special thing
I’m ok admitting I was wrong and that the race was very entertaining. That said, I think this should move to a different city each year, that way it gives more fans a chance to see this kind of racing, and keeps things interesting for viewers and drivers as well.
As someone from the outskirts of Chicago, I selfishly disagree. I hope they do this for years to come. I went with 4 people, it was all our first live NASCAR event and we had a blast. While I agree they should showcase other cities, I really hope they do this again in Chicago.
This is still not the future NASCAR sorry. The future is literally staring at them in face just bring back Chicagoland and Montreal while reviving Rockingham and the Milwaukee mile from literal extinction on the face of the earth.
This was a fantastic race. The wet conditions really shook things up at the start, and honestly it seems like there was a lot of passing yesterday. The durability of the Next Gens also showed off really well. The fact there was a bunch of people in the tire packs yet no DNF’s occurred because of them is a testament to the car’s strength. Overall, I think the track deserves a few more years.
Well except Austin Dillion but that was because he hit like the end of the tire barrier and then into the concrete wall.
About the winner in Shane Van Gisbergen. Also here in the V8 Supercars series particularly as the series comes to my home track in Townsville in North Queensland for the halfway point it usually is of the season. Which is another street circuit. We set the track like that with concrete walls and tire barriers. I know why NASCAR doesn’t use these concrete walls. (Mainly on the ovals after the loss of Sale Earnhardt) but yeah here Chicago I thought yeah it’s okay to have the concrete walls here since for the most part the cars aren’t necessarily going that fast and paddle them with tire barriers.
But yeah usually if you hit the wall in the V8 Supercars and it’s a concrete one usually. You’re pretty much out and your day is for a good possibility is done.
I think this event was completely saved by SVG. The rain spiced it up, but for the most part the racing wasn’t great. If you take SVG out of it, you have a forgettable driver win that got the lead on strategy and no one could get him. Someone like Busch or Larson winning could make people remember it for a little longer, Elliot because that would give him his win storyline, but any of those it’s just another race by the time the playoffs start.
I have been begging NASCAR for years to come to my hometown, and once it happened, all my relatives came into town and came together at an apartment to watch it together. ❤
I’m somewhere between casual and avid nascar fan, and this was the most entertained I’ve been from a race start to finish in a LONG time. It’s great to see them race in rain, and the strategy of going back to slicks. My inner Gran Turismo player loved the city course. A lot of fans barrier to entry with this series is how incredibly long the races are, and shortening them could be good (although a heavily unpopular opinion with long time fans). I feel it was a complete success and would love to see it again. These are all opinions, feel free to disagree. Thanks for the video!
Add this to the VERY GOOD. NASCAR scored a 2.52 rating and 4.632 million viewers. The most watched NBC race since Dale Jr’s last race in 2017.
Not gonna lie, a part of me was worried the opposite would happen. Good to see the hype translated to the national audience.
That’s a fantastic rating. I didn’t think it get that much of a bump. That’s about 1.5 million more viewers than Nashville the previous week.
Dale Jr carrying the booth
Ratings sure the hell didn’t make it a good race weekend, though..
My guy you left out THE most important part!!! This EQUALLED the Indy 500!!
When was the last time a non Daytona 500 race do that? Incredible from NASCAR
I have huge respect for NASCAR trying something different different, resurrecting the vision envisaged by the proposal in the 1980’s for the LR car (it was proposed for exactly this type of racing: Street courses and road courses, but never eaced). From an outsiders perspective, it was cool to watch NASCAR racing on city streets. The weather played a part in how entertaining it was, it’ll be interesting to see how a dry race compares, but it’s a promising start
I liked it. I also liked the way they just kinda pushed them out on the wet track and said “go figure it out boys!” And everybody pretty much rose to that challenge. Dennys was figuring out how to slide on the pre reace pace laps. Other drivers were also using the slick track to their advantage when navigating some turns… it looked fun…. it looked like they were having fun, which made it more fun to watch.
Wouldn’t mind seeing a true road course like this every year on some kind of rotation maybe?
Despite the rain it was fun being at this race. Although they only had one food spot open, Everything else seemed to run without any problems. They definitely had enough bathrooms. There was definitely some good standing spots in the GA area. As for the race it’s self it was awesome to hear these machines go by. As for the accidents and stack ups, the people at the race got a kick out of it. We all had a good laugh a Gragson. But for Xfinity it was tragic they had to cancel it, but there is no shot that the city would let them try and go Monday. And that car who snuck in track definitely had to be an inside job. I hope they come back next year and we have better weather. I can see more people coming out next year after seeing what it was like.
All things considered, this was a fantastic event. The racing was as good as it was going to be with the weather. The production was fantastic. The asthetic of street courses is just awesome. If they could, I would say make some minor tweaks to the layout, but overall, this was solid.
With the conditions they had, they did the absolute best they could. If the conditions were right, i think the track has a lot of potential so i’d like to see it make a return