NASCAR Chicago Street Race returns with shorter setup, fewer skeptics and hopes for less rain

The NASCAR Chicago Street Race is back for Year 2, with an accelerated and less disruptive setup schedule, the addition of single-day ticket sales to boost attendance and hopes that Mother Nature will cooperate to help the July Fourth weekend event gain more traction.

The first viewing structures have already risen along the lakefront and major street closures are scheduled to begin today. Unlike last year, a once-wary Chicago has barely noticed.

With one event under its belt, the premise of blocking off traffic for weeks so race cars can careen through Grant Park, down Lake Shore Drive and up Michigan Avenue, seems to be eliciting a collective shrug from the City of Big Shoulders.

“I think the big difference this year versus last year is people have an understanding of what the event is and how it comes together and what to expect,” said Julie Giese, 46, president of NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race. “It wasn’t as bad as everyone expected last year as far as moving around the city.”

Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said Chicagoans are generally less concerned after seeing NASCAR successfully pull off the first street race in its 75-year history amid biblical rains last summer.

“They understand there’s some appeal to it, and they’re much more open-minded to welcome the event to the city,” he said.

The Grant Park 220, a nationally televised Cup Series race July 7, will again feature a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course lined with temporary fences, grandstands and hospitality suites. An Xfinity Series race is set for July 6, with full-length concerts scheduled each day — weather permitting.

Last year, the Chicago Street Race navigated torrential rainfall, Canadian wildfire haze and an atmosphere of skepticism as NASCAR turned the Grant Park environs into a pop-up urban racecourse.

Despite curtailed races, canceled concerts and a drenched crowd that fell short of targets, the event was a TV ratings hit, and by most accounts, a boost to Chicago’s image and tourism efforts.

“The weather was definitely a challenge,” Giese said. “I think the key takeaway on that, though, is that we were able to get the event in. We were able to do it very successfully, in spite of record rainfall, and we did learn a lot.”

The inaugural Chicago Street Race drew 79,299 attendees from 15 countries and all 50 states, generating $108.9 million in total economic impact and $23.6 million in media exposure, according to a study conducted by Temple University’s Sport Industry Research Center for Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism arm.

Giese said the attendance target for this year’s event remains 50,000 per day and 100,000 over the weekend, but she declined to disclose advance ticket sales.

Two-day tickets start at $269 for general admission, and run all the way up through $3,360 for the Founders Club on the first floor of The Skyline, formerly the Paddock Club, a premium hospitality experience overlooking pit road and the start/finish line at Buckingham Fountain.

This year, NASCAR is also selling single-day general admission tickets at $150, with children 12 and under admitted free on Saturday and for $45 on Sunday.

Hoping to generate the summer festival vibe that was essentially washed out last year, NASCAR has scheduled another full slate of concerts headlined by Keith Urban, The Black Keys, Lauren Alaina and The Chainsmokers. The lineup will also feature Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy. 

The Chicago Street Race 2.0 also offers an expanded NASCAR Village at Butler Field, a free adjacent experience with more than 30 local food and retail vendors.

Under the terms of a three-year deal struck during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, NASCAR agreed to pay the Chicago Park District a $500,000 permit fee in 2023, $550,000 this year and $605,000 in 2025, with an option to renew for two years. In addition, NASCAR will pay the Park District a $2 fee per admission ticket, and an escalating commission for food, beverage and merchandise sold at the event.

Both NASCAR and the Park District may terminate the agreement by providing written notice at least 180 days before the next event.

In October, Mayor Brandon Johnson committed to the second Chicago Street Race weekend, with NASCAR agreeing to shave six days off the setup and breakdown schedule, reducing it from 25 to 19 days.

NASCAR also agreed to pay the city $2 million to cover police overtime and other expenses associated with the event.

“We will make a final decision on the third year and beyond in the near future,” a city of Chicago spokesperson said in an email Tuesday night.

Setup began June 10 with the construction of The Skyline, but the official clock doesn’t start ticking until NASCAR begins installing concrete barriers and shutting down major roads today.

The first significant closure – Jackson Drive between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive – starts Thursday, with NASCAR pledging to reopen all streets by July 15.

NASCAR is also streamlining the construction of the viewing stands. Ida B. Wells Drive was shut down to begin staging the stands, but Columbus Drive remains fully open.

“Knowing that it’s such a major thoroughfare/artery downtown, we were able to shift how we load in the viewing structure materials to Ida B Wells, so it freed up Columbus even longer,” Giese said. “So last year it had 20 days of impact. This year it’ll only be 12 days.”

In addition to The Skyline, which is still under construction, two reserved grandstands and the new Liquid Death Plaza Club on Congress Circle have all been completed.

Despite the $2 million payment and higher permit fee, NASCAR may see some cost savings in Year 2. For example, the 2,200 concrete barriers built to line the perimeter of the racecourse are being stored at The 78, the megadevelopment and potential future home for a new White Sox stadium on long-vacant land in the South Loop.

But most of the track setup, from fences to stands, is rented, and NASCAR is budgeting about $50 million for the event this year — roughly the same as last year, Giese said.

Giese declined to disclose financial results from 2023, but indicated the Chicago Street Race is not yet a profit center for NASCAR.

“This event is about driving tourism to the city of Chicago and introducing NASCAR to a new audience, more so than revenue,” Giese said. “You usually need several years for a new event to begin to be profitable.”

While record rainfall flooded the course, shortening both the Saturday and Sunday races, the inaugural Grant Park 220 nonetheless proved exciting for the hardy fans in attendance, and the four-hour NBC broadcast averaged nearly 4.8 million viewers, making it the network’s most-watched Cup Series race in six years, according to Nielsen.

In November, NASCAR renewed a seven-year media rights deal with NBC and Fox worth a reported $7.7 billion.

New Zealand Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen won his NASCAR debut at the Chicago Street Race last year in a come-from-behind finish. He will be back in Chicago this year, running in both the Xfinity Series on Saturday and then defending his Cup Series title on Sunday.

This year, both the Saturday and Sunday NASCAR races will be on NBC, giving Chicago even more national TV exposure. The value of a two-day commercial for the city’s skyline, lakefront, parks and other assets, amounts to an earned media windfall for Chicago.

“It’s impossible to buy this amount of coverage for the city,” said marketing professor Calkins. “It’s mathematically impossible. The city could never do that.”

Calkins said NASCAR can burnish the city’s image, and perhaps serve as an insurance policy ahead of the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22 at the United Center. The convention is projected to bring 50,000 visitors, 20,000 members of the media and 5,500 delegates to the city, according to the Chicago DNC 2024 host committee.

The DNC may also bring some unflattering publicity to the city, Calkins said.

With the polarizing political climate and simmering unrest, some fear that 2024 may be a flashback to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when the whole world watched as protests and violent clashes erupted in the streets of Chicago.

“The problem for the convention is there’s a lot of potential for coverage to be less than favorable to the city,” Calkins said. “That’s a tough event to pull off, so having an event go well with NASCAR is particularly important this year.”

While there are many metrics for judging the success of the Chicago Street Race in 2024, given the challenges the event faced last year, the bar has been set relatively low, Calkins said.

Chicago may be able to get a better sense of the full potential of NASCAR this time around, he said.

“There’s a lot of upside potential for this year,” Calkins said. “Simply by having decent weather, you know, the event is positioned to be a bigger success here in Year 2.”

The city also seems more receptive to the street race this year, Calkins said. A good example may be the Museum Campus, which is located at the southern end of the racecourse.

Last year, the Shedd Aquarium was closed, the Field Museum had reduced hours, and the Adler Planetarium expressed concerns about access for patrons during the Chicago Street Race weekend. This summer, the museums are fully open and, in some cases, promotionally partnered with NASCAR.

“Last year, we didn’t see a notable downtick in attendance given the uncertainty of access and torrential rains,” said Jennifer Howell, a spokesperson for the Adler Planetarium. “We are hopeful to see normal attendance this year, and we still don’t know whether the race will help or hurt business.”

NASCAR is the sponsor of Adler at Night, which offers free admission Wednesday evenings during the summer to Illinois residents.

The Shedd Aquarium will remain open during race weekend this year with adjusted hours and capacity, spokesperson Johnny Ford said in an email.

“We are appreciative of efforts from the city and NASCAR to minimize disruption leading up to and following the race next month,” Ford said. “We are also grateful for the increased communication and responsiveness to ensure access to Museum Campus for locals and tourists alike.”

The Field Museum, which saw “positive attendance” of nearly 12,000 visitors last July Fourth weekend — despite limited hours — will be fully open during this year’s race weekend, spokesperson Bridgette Russell said.

The Art Institute, which is located just north of Turn 11 from Michigan Avenue onto Jackson Drive, site of a massive 12-car pileup during last year’s race, said the event was good for business.

Whether they were seeking shelter from the storms or a glimpse of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” some 13,000 visitors strolled through the Art Institute during street race weekend.

“We were open all race weekend last year, and it was great,” said Art Institute spokesperson Megan Michienzi. “It was very seamless. We had a lot of visitors.”

Expectations are high for this summer’s event, with the Chicago Street Race pace car featuring a custom wrap promoting the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at the Art Institute.

Another beneficiary of a projected 50,000 racegoers descending on Grant Park for July Fourth weekend may be the Chicago hotel industry, which has recovered significantly, but has yet to reach pre-pandemic occupancy levels.

Last year, out-of-town street race attendees booked 23,315 room nights in area hotels, according to the economic impact study. The weekend fell short of a hoped-for hotel sellout, however.

Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, said events like NASCAR and Lollapalooza are crucial to the industry’s recovery, as business and convention travel continues to lag.

“Our reliance on these major events is so much more than it was several years ago, because we’re waiting for these other key segments of our industry to fully recover,” Jacobson said.

Chicago hotel occupancy is projected at 78.6% in July, up from last year but still below the 82.6% reached in July 2019, according to data from research firm STR. More proximate hotels are getting a bigger boost from NASCAR.

Lisa Timbo, general manager of the Sheraton Grand Chicago, a 1,218-room hotel about a mile north of the street race site in Streeterville, is expecting a full house on July Fourth weekend.

“We’ve got some groups in the hotel from NASCAR, and then we have additional transient demand, so we’re at full capacity,” Timbo said. “Without it, I don’t think we would have sold out.”

Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago sports economist, remains skeptical that the Chicago Street Race is worth the disruption. Challenging the methodology of the economic impact report, he pegs the real benefit to the city at about 10% of the $108.9 million total.

Last year, Sanderson displayed uncanny meteorological prescience by warning in advance that a “couple of days of solid rain” could sink the event. Now that NASCAR has weathered that initial storm, and made strides to minimize disruption, even Sanderson is slightly more optimistic about the street race in Year 2.

“It seems to be going in the right direction,” Sanderson said. “You cross your fingers and hope that nothing bad happens.”

rchannick@chicagotribune.com