- In an effort to minimize the impact of closing busy Chicago streets, most of the course won’t be completed until race weekend.
- A computer model has been used for all of the planning details.
- For the weekend’s non-racing activities, NASCAR turned to Four Leaf Productions owned by Charlie Jones, who was one of the founders of Lollapalooza.
Chaos is a word often used by NASCAR Cup drivers to describe the type of racing they believe the Chicago street course will provide, but one could say putting the event together has been intense, organized chaos.
For those charged with taking NASCAR’s first-ever street race from concept to reality, it has meant educating the community, employing the correct contractors, creating a concise schedule, and seeking advice from IMSA and long-time organizers of events in Chicago. They even turned to a person who has worked with the Monaco Grand Prix for their race control system.
A computer model has been used for all of the planning details.
The weekend also includes the NASCAR Xfinity Series Loop 121 on July 1. The NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 is July 2.
“With iRacing, our drivers, obviously are using it. We’re using that same … base model to create the course and all the different viewing areas as well as the seat views,” says NASCAR executive Julie Giese, who is overseeing preparations for the Chicago race.
In an effort to minimize the impact of closing busy Chicago streets, most of the course won’t be completed until race weekend.
“While they’re going through inspection, we’re finishing the rest of the course,” says Chicago native and NASCAR Senior Director of Competition Operations Tim Bermann.
Race Director Jusan Hamilton says it will be Saturday morning before the closed race course exists.
“This is a very detailed schedule, and everything is cadenced,” Giese says. “The haulers have a staging location and will be convoyed into the footprint on Friday morning by each series. Everything is literally timed down to the minute in conjunction with all the different departments of the city. We’re all working from a CAD drawing that is quite detailed. Each thing has a schedule attached to it when it’s loading in and then loading out.
“We were able to trim a week off of our original build time just based on trying to minimize that impact to the locals.”
Chicago Street Course president Julie Giese is overseeing the operation helping turn downtown Chicago into a NASCAR playground.
This Won’t Be a Normal Race Weekend
Several items that have become familiar scenes at NASCAR races won’t exist in Chicago.
• There won’t be a motor coach lot. Drivers and crew members will stay in area hotels with each team arranging its own shuttle for those not within walking distance.
• There won’t be a garage for each series, per se. The Xfinity Series transporters will park on the southbound lanes of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
• Some of the NASCAR Cup haulers will also be in that area in addition to Monroe Street, flanking the north end of the course’s footprint.
• The Xfinity teams will work on pit road. The Cup teams will work on Columbus Drive, in front of the media center which is on two levels of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The painting of pit road for the 12-turn, 2.2-mile road course was to begin Tuesday on South Columbus Drive. The pit boxes will be 28 feet, and the cameras for NASCAR’s pit road system will be mounted on light poles. Bermann noted the streets in that area are closed on a routine basis for festivals and the filming of the television show “Chicago Fire”, so that wasn’t an issue.
There are cutout positions around the track where the normal allotment of safety vehicles will be located. Turns four and 11 have runoff areas. Bermann says the street course at its narrowest section is wider than the entire track at Road America.
“It’s going to be claustrophobic looking because there’s walls,” Bermann said.
South Lakeshore Drive is a six-lane street and Bermann says they are taking up a small portion of it with walls. He says South Columbus Drive, especially turns five and six, is wide.
“I mean, like almost Pocono wide,” Bermann commented.
The course will have nine scoring loops.
Bermann noted that about 90 manhole covers were on the course, but many were capped up by the walls.
Let’s Talk Security
Regarding security, NASCAR is working with the Chicago Police Department as well as the Office of Emergency Management and the Chicago Fire Department.
“We actually hosted some of those individuals at the Circuit of the Americas earlier this year so they could get a good sense of an event from a NASCAR perspective,” Giese says. “We have a solid security plan in and around the footprint supplemented with additional security inside, third party security like you would see at a lot of our other events.”
Since Giese assumed her position 10 months ago, her life has consisted of hundreds of meetings that have included educating Chicago residents about NASCAR.
“I’m very grateful for those computerized models, because we have been able to replicate exactly what we’re doing and show some visualizations of it,” Giese says. “Everybody you’re talking to is looking at it from a different lens. Making sure everybody in Chicago is aware of what’s happening and how to move around is critical for us.
“We have a street team that is out in the city daily that is talking to businesses and resident buildings and helping them understand the schedules from a road closure perspective as well as (Grant) Park build. We’re over 700 businesses that we’ve had one-on-one conversations with, almost 100 resident buildings, 17 places of worship. Residents know to reach out to us with questions and they’re sharing that information.”
A local information website was also activated.
“We’ve worked really hard with the park district as well as our team to leave access to Buckingham Fountain available until the (June) 28th and getting that reopened in time for July 4,” Giese says.
Bermann notes that due to it being the Fourth of July weekend, most of the businesses are letting their employees leave work at noon on Friday.
It Will Take a Village
When it comes to staffing the race, Bermann will use personnel from various tracks and racing series to handle race specific duties.
The emergency crews that handle the on-track work are coming from World Wide Technology Raceway, Michigan, the Milwaukee Mile, Road America and Iowa. Many of them have their own campers and are bringing their families. They are parking their campers on the backstretch at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. NASCAR is busing those workers into Chicago daily.
The Chicagoland Region of the Sports Car Club of America is providing corner workers for the race. They are camping at Route 66 Raceway, which is adjacent to Chicagoland Speedway and a park-and-ride location.
The Chicago Fire Department is manning the fuel island for Sunoco’s operations. Bermann said they would work jointly with racing personnel with the pit medical and fire carts and in covering some of the garage areas.
Should repair work be needed during the event, a paving crew is coming from Daytona. There’s also a crew traveling from Talladega.
Yes, Roads Will Be Blocked Off
Most of the blocks that will form the barriers were poured by NASCAR using the same molds that were used for the Miami Grand Prix, Detroit and the Nashville, Tennessee, IndyCar race.
Construction of the president’s paddock club, the event’s largest structure, began two weeks ago. It’s a two-story structure that’s built above the tree line. Several grandstand locations are already in place and the main grandstand at the start-finish line is under construction. The suites are under development as well. Everything needed for construction was purchased locally.
Barriers have already been placed along E. Jackson Drive. The last streets to receive barriers include South Lake Shore Drive and South Michigan Avenue.
Many Areas Have Been Repaved
Hamilton notes that the streets serving as the frontstretch and pit road have been repaved since the original iRacing version of the Chicago street course was used in 2021. Several transition areas also have been repaved to make them smoother.
The restart zone has been moved to turn 12 in an effort to spread out the cars before they reach the tight turn one. However, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola maintains someone will still attempt a dive bomb move entering the first turn.
“The one thing we did do is because the zone is further from the start-finish line, they have to stay in their lane until they cross a white line that will be on the frontstretch right at the entrance to pit road,” Hamilton says. “They don’t have to stay in their lane until they get to the start-finish line like we typically communicate. They’ll choose coming through the top of the bus loop at turn nine. Having it further down the course in that location actually helps us to save laps under caution and get back to green quicker.”
There are three areas for spotters. They have the front row of the suites closest towards turn one. Their second location is outside of turn four. The other is a balcony on the Symphony Center, just off turn 11.
The radio frequency zone used by NASCAR and all of the teams had to be changed so as not to interfere with other two-way radio transmissions used in the Chicago area.
The Black Crowes will be performing on race weekend in Chicago.
Concerts, Concerts, Concerts
For the weekend’s non-racing activities, NASCAR turned to Four Leaf Productions owned by Charlie Jones, who was one of the founders of Lollapalooza, an annual four-day music festival in Chicago’s Grant Park.
His company’s responsibilities include building premium hospitality areas, creating interactive experiences throughout the park and producing two live concerts on the music stage each evening. Headlining those concerts are Miranda Lambert, The Black Crowes, The Chainsmokers and Charley Crockett.
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