The newest trend in American motorsports — downtown street racing

NASCAR says Chicago is its third-largest market for fans and one that it has long considered important. In 1956, it even staged a race inside Soldier Field. More recently the circuit made annual trips to the Chicagoland Speedway out in Joliet, about 50 miles from the downtown loop.

However, as Ben Kennedy, the 30-year-old who heads NASCAR’s racing development and strategy (and great grandson of founder Bill France Sr.), analyzed current market trends and future opportunities, he began dreaming of not just racing near Chicago.

He wanted to be in Chicago.

Soon he and his team were meeting with city leaders about moving a race away from a traditional track and onto the famed, skyscraper-lined streets (Michigan Avenue, Lake Shore Drive) that run around and through downtown’s Grant Park.

Next month — July 1-2 to be exact — the NASCAR Chicago Street Race will become reality, with stock cars ripping across a 2.2-mile, multi-turn loop, complete with stunning visuals, concerts and festivals for city residents who can arrive via public transportation, if not by foot.

“We are literally and figuratively bringing the race to the people,” Kennedy told Yahoo Sports.

“We have never had a street course before, but there is nothing better than the Grant Park location,” he continued. “The track width should create a ton of action and the overall presence of the city and Lake Michigan around you … it’s going to be special.”

It should be. It also continues a growing trend in American auto racing to embrace city centers.

Maybe it’s the need for innovation in search of potential fans. Maybe it’s how social media has made Instragram-able backdrops so important. Maybe it’s the demographics of young people flocking toward urban living.

Or maybe it’s the impact of F1’s growing popularity or even more importantly, its ability to make racing trendy. Whatever it is, it’s here.

Chicago isn’t even NASCAR’s first city foray. It’s already staged two well-received, celebrity-rich races at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That brought the circuit to the edge of downtown LA rather than its traditional location 50 miles east at a track in Fontana.

Meanwhile, this weekend, the IndyCar Series will hold the Detroit GrandPrix on the downtown streets of the Motor City. Its winner's circle is smack dab between the popular Riverwalk and the 73-story Renaissance Center which houses the corporate headquarters of General Motors.

The annual event had been staged on nearby Belle Island, which while technically in the city, felt detached from the action. Now the 1.7-mile course will whip around familiar streets and draw in local restaurants, bars and businesses, not to mention offer views from apartments, hotels and offices.

And in an effort to draw in new fans and families, at least half of the course will offer free-of-charge viewing.

“These races can just take over a city,” said Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment. “Everybody in town can be a part of it. It’s conspicuous. It’s accessible. It's affordable. It’s in no way elitist. It’s a great way to showcase downtown Detroit and the Riverfront, but also a great way to showcase our racing and our events.”

Detroit’s inspiration was the MusicCity Grand Prix, which in 2021 took to the streets of Nashville. The circuit previously raced from 2001-08 at Nashville Superspeedway, about a 35-mile drive away.

While IndyCar is still most committed to big tracks that deliver 200-plus-mile-per-hour action, one third of its schedule is now city racing, including longstanding events in Toronto, Long Beach, California, and Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Then there is F1, which holds the most iconic city street race in the world each year in Monaco. In November, F1 heads to Las Vegas, where the 3.8-mile course will include a lengthy run down the Vegas Strip past Caesars Palace, the Bellagio and the High Roller.

“You are seeing the trend in motorsports in the U.S.,” NASCAR’s Kennedy said.

Kennedy said NASCAR’s base will always be at standalone tracks and the unique experience those provide for “fans to camp and celebrate racing by hanging out for a weekend with friends and family.

“We will never leave that,” he continued, “but being able to bring racing to the people in a large city is something we wanted to do with Chicago and Los Angeles. It’s a huge opportunity to get yourself in front of new fans.”

F1’s popularity has taken off in part due to the Netflix series “Drive to Survive", which has proven interest in fast cars cuts across all demographics. If it works for F1, then why not NASCAR and especially IndyCar, which features similar cars and racing style? And if those circuits can draft off F1, all the better.

“I think it’s a friendly competition,” Miles said of IndyCar and F1. “What they do a great job of is building awareness of open-wheel racing. But we’ve been doing it in this country for a long time.”

Kennedy said that 70 percent of the fans at the Clash at the Coliseum were attending their first-ever NASCAR event. He thinks the Chicago figure will be even higher, and that doesn’t count locals simply watching out their windows or on television out of curiosity.

IndyCar notes that city races “attract younger fans” and the events in St. Pete and Long Beach have “become part of the fabric of the city, part of the calendar” in unique ways.

Whatever the case, this is the trend in American motorsports — downtown street racing.

It’s fast. It’s loud. It’s impossible to miss. And it's coming, perhaps, to a city near you.