According to reports from Sports Business Journal earlier this week, NASCAR officials were in discussion about racing on street circuit with the city of Chicago for the 2023 Cup Series Season.
One thing in NASCAR’s favor is it’s racing history in the city of Chicago, courtesy of the Chicagoland Superspeedway. Chicagoland has hosted races between 2002 and 2019 however, the speedway has not hosted a race since then.
While the idea of a street course race has somewhat support within NASCAR, there are remarkable logistical and financial contemplation that go into constructing a street course.
NASCAR in Talks to Race on Street Tracks as early as 2023
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr has come out to express his concerns over the proposal in his podcast Dale Jr. Download.
“I guess I need to ask, what’s fun about watching cars racing around a street course? I can’t answer that question for me. I can’t sit here and go, ‘Man, I wish we really had a street course,’ because I don’t know why street courses are better or different,” Earnhardt said. ”
Watching the driver try to figure out how to navigate them, it’s fun because you see the drivers are struggling. It’s frustrating to sort of work around there. But that’s with Indy Lights and IndyCars.
“I will say in my experience in the virtual world on iRacing with the Chicago course didn’t make me more excited. I didn’t think that our cars went around there very well. But that’s the virtual world, and the real world is going to be a little different. So I’m still not eager for it.”
.@NASCAR in talks to bring street racing to the windy city as early as 2023 🏙️💨🏎️
(via @A_S12)https://t.co/KZNKOZVB46 pic.twitter.com/QGwSttc17E
— Sports Business Journal (@sbjsbd) February 28, 2022