NASCAR will celebrate its 75th season with an unprecedented street race through downtown Chicago.
The first race of a three-year deal between the city of Chicago and the Cup Series will take place in July of next year. Ben Kennedy is the great-grandson of Bill France.
Kennedy orchestrated the January exhibition race inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that will return for a second run in the fall of23. Kennedy told the AP that he started working on the Coliseum and Chicago street race in 2019.
NASCAR has made a number of changes to its schedule, the first of which is the addition of a dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Music and entertainment options will be located along the 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course where the Chicago race will be held.
"We've always been short tracks, intermediates, superspeedways, eventually started getting more road courses and then came up with the Coliseum concept."
The ability for us to get a downtown setting like his and bring racing to our fans is a perfect opportunity for a street course.
The Coliseum will be back in January, but the rest of the schedule hasn't been announced. Kennedy told the AP that the road course race at Road America will be replaced by the Chicago street course.
The last two seasons of the Cup Series were held at Road America. NASCAR keeps a race in the Midwest region by moving into downtown Chicago. There were 19 Cup races at Chicagoland Speedway, which is 45 miles from downtown.
The opening race of the playoffs was made by NASCAR in order to build interest in the market. The track was too far from the downtown area to draw in a new audience.
The start/finish line and pit road will be located in front of Buckingham Fountain in the famed areas of Chicago. The only other Cup Series race to take place in Chicago was at Soldier Field.
Kennedy said that the party responsible for all costs of producing the race would be NASCAR. He wouldn't discuss any agreements with the city of Chicago.
The mayor said that Chicago's reputation as a world-class sports city is irrefutable. An event that will attract thousands of people to our city is what I am excited about. Our city's history as a conduit for sports talent makes it the perfect host for this unique event.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
