Out of curiosity, I was just looking through recap coverage on this race on Youtube, and I see almost nothing but glowing comments. Stuff like: “I’ve never watched NASCAR before, but now I’m a fan for life” and “I had my doubts but this race was brilliant” and “the rain made it that much more exciting; once the track dried up it was a little less fun”, “amazing race” etc. I see very little negative commentary, and commentary from people who have not watched NASCAR before. Hell, just walking around the city yesterday I heard chatter hear and there about the race, and I rarely if ever hear people talking about NASCAR in Chicago.
So, overall, I think this must have been a resounding success, though I’m sure the organizers and city may have wanted better weather. (Like other commentators, I loved the fact it was a bit wet out there.)
I think that some new fans will be bored quickly with the good old boy oval track stuff. This race was unique and interesting in ways that the usual NASCAR racing won’t bring.
Oh no doubt. Me included. Next year they should have the course go through Lower Wacker! 
Maybe a few Blues Brothers stunts!
While listening to WBBM (the Chicago news radio station) this afternoon, they mentioned that the city had signed a three-year deal with NASCAR to hold a race here. However, they also aired an interview with Brandon Johnson, the new mayor, who was noncommittal about his support of the deal (which was entered into by the previous administration).
Interesting. Thanks for the additional information.
Hmm… How does NASCAR rule on drivers getting lost during the race?
I remember one time a few years ago a parking garage located off lower Columbus, I think, dumped me off at the Lower Lower level of Wacker, yeah al, and I suddenly thought I had discovered the land of the mole people. I had no idea where in the hell inwas, and I’m born and raised here. Some unlucky folk may be familiar with it as a city auto pound is located there. I’m not even sure how I figured my way out, because my GPS was “hey, it’s all too, buddy.”
Thankfully the NASCAR drivers don’t have to use a GPS, I can’t tell you how many Uber drivers got lost there. Before Covid, it was common for a lot of drivers to come into Chicago from nearby areas and drive Uber over big weekends here
Man - back in the day, “green city” was pretty much the destination for our longer cruises! 
As a resident of Chicagoland, I have to say that it was pretty uninspiring and way more trouble than it was worth from the view of the average citizen. Street closures began 2 weeks before the event, and major closures the last week. I’m talking about Columbus drive, the heart of Lake Shore Drive that passes by the downtown area, etc. What with the major construction on the Kennedy, Lake Shore Drive is the only other way to traverse the city north/south unless you want to go all the way west to I-294, which would be ridiculous.
It’s difficult for even small Formula One cars to drive and pass on these narrow twisty-turny types of courses. The big NASCAR vehicles looked outright awkward, and the so called wrecks didn’t look like wrecks, they looked like slow motion bumper cars piling up on the corners in the tires.
The contract is for 3 years now, because the politicians loved it. It makes Chicago look bigger and more important, which makes them look good.
Well, that actually is under review, as mentioned above in the posts. There are escape clauses apparently, and Brandon Johnson doesn’t seem too hot on it. A good number of alderman were against it last year. I don’t at all have the impression politicians loved it as a whole. There’s currently some sort of economic impact study being done and the city will reassess. As a Chicagoan, I loved it. Highlight of the summer for me and, yes, I was affected by the road closures. Perhaps they could pick a better weekend than they did this year, but any weekend in the summer is going to annoy some people somewhere.
Despite my glowing impression of the race, I would not be surprised now if the city opts out of it.
Thanks for sharing the info and your perspective. I guess I’m an oval racing fan. I don’t like Formula One, either, because passing is so hard and much of the race has to be won with fast pit stops instead of raw speed and passing.
Yep, exact opposite for me. F1 is the only racing I’ve enjoyed watching, and the races at Monaco and Baku are my favorites, so it makes sense I would like this. Oval racing I just find boring as all hell, no matter how many times people have tried to get me into it.
Yeah, I’m trying to keep politics out of the Game Room but this is a case where local politics could be the deciding factor. There’s always a knee jerk, ‘Why are we spending money on that when we could be spending the money on what I want?’ reaction. As well, the mayor who approved it was trounced in a reelection attempt.
It is so hard to judge the race for this year as the weather was just so off the charts bad that no one could have predicted it. A thunderstorm in July, sure. But not the non stop soaking rains for hours on end. That’s just not to be expected in a Chicago summer.
But, as mentioned above, it did show Chicago to many people who only know of it from scaremongering on right wing media. So, that’s definitely something. Who knows how often Chicago is vetoed immediately when it comes up in corporate meetings looking for new office space or a convention location because of clickbait hungry media and scaremongering
I’ve enjoyed auto racing since childhood, and while I certainly like oval racing, I think that road-course races (Watkins Glen, Road America, Nurburgring, etc.) and street races have a different sort of excitement to them.
I was bemused by comments after the Chicago NASCAR race, from novice fans, along the lines of “wow, I never realized that stock car racing was like this!” Well, no, it’s generally not.
Me, too. Same for open-wheel racing, even on road courses. Still works out to a bunch of cars driving through streets.
Now, rally car racing - that’s fun. That really is like real life action movie chase sequence.
Oh, I’m with you on rally. That’s good stuff.