Fans flocked downtown Chicago Sunday morning ahead of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race weekend’s main event, the Grant Park 165.
Thousands filed into the park before noon despite the midafternoon race start time to take in the full festival offerings and stake out spots along the 2.2-mile, 12-turn track built atop downtown city streets.
The race continued to close much of Michigan and Columbus avenues around Grant Park, but little car traffic grew north of the closures. Last year, many of the weekend’s concerts and sideshows were canceled amid torrential rain. But the event got off to a smoother start Sunday amid sunny, warm weather early in the day, but light showers pushed the race’s 3:30 p.m. start back more than a half hour.
The fence just feet away from the track along Columbus Drive was completely lined by fans early in the day.
Marie Rushing, 35, claimed a spot there ahead of her first NASCAR race. The Oak Lawn resident scored tickets at racer Bubba Wallace’s “block party” event Friday in Douglass Park, she said.
Her 3-year-old son Kenzo played with a toy car on her lawn chair as she waited for her husband to return with earplugs. Behind her, a few thousand fans listened as Australian country music star Keith Urban performed to a mostly empty field.
“I’m really excited to see how fast the cars are, up close and personal. And to see the excitement on my son’s face,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Joliet resident Dawn Firlit said she took the train alone into the city as she walked through the open-to-the-public “NASCAR village” in Butler Field.
Firlit has seen plenty of big races, including the Indy 500 and Daytona 500, but in only its second year, Chicago’s contest already has a special place in her heart.
“You can’t beat the race in Chicago,” Firlit said. “It’s a road course — it’s so different. I’ve just been taking pictures of everything — the skyline, the cars.”
Dean Rottman, 13, who lives near O’Hare International Airport, convinced his parents to bring him to the race last year.
Despite the weather, “it was a blast,” the racing-obsessed teen said, listing the kinds of tires race cars use in the rain. His parents say he’s an encyclopedia of NASCAR knowledge.
Rottman’s parents are not NASCAR fans, but they’ve attended two years in a row to support their son and have gotten hooked on the sport.
“I wasn’t sure if it was just a passing fad,” said his mother, Jill Rottman. “It turns out he’s a legitimate fan. So, what he’s interested in, now I’m gonna be interested in.”
Now, she’s rooting for Cup Series leader Kyle Larson, although her son is a Chase Elliot fan.
“That’s what adds a little spice to the family,” she added.
Larson won the pole for the Cup Series race Saturday, earning him Sunday afternoon’s starting spot. But 2023 Grant Park winner Shane van Ginsbergen came out on top Saturday in the weekend’s undercard race, the Xfinity Series Loop 110.
After a concert from country star Keith Urban, driver introductions and remarks from Mayor Brandon Johnson, race grand marshall and Chicago Bears legend Matt Forte will tell drivers to start their engines. The former running back said he loves racing because he loves speed, both when he carries the football and when he drives.
“My wife always tell me sometimes you drive like you’re in the game,” Forte said during a news conference Sunday morning.
As tourists and Chicagoans arrived downtown Sunday to watch the sport’s stars, some visitors took a pit stop to get a look at other, unrelated big names — like Claude Monet, Grant Wood and Georgia O’Keeffe. It was business as usual inside the Art Institute of Chicago.
Over the last three days, museum spokesperson Megan Michienzi said the Art Institute has seen more than 21,000 visitors to the museum, about 20% higher than the numbers of a typical July weekend last year. More visitors have also been visiting the museum this year, she said.
In the Impressionist galleries, crowds lingered by George Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” Visitors appeared undisturbed by the commotion of the race, while outside the museum, NASCAR fans filed by, a few stopping in the Art Institute’s lobby to take a break from the heat.
Gwen Inman and Simon Clement, from Albuquerque, said they planned their trip to Chicago without NASCAR in mind.
“I’m glad they (NASCAR fans) had a good time,” Inman said. Other than some trouble getting Ubers, they said they had no problem visiting major attractions — a Cubs game, The Bean, the Magnificent Mile and the Art Institute, where they were spending a few hours Sunday.
“I could spend all day in here (the Art Institute),” said Inman, although she added that Clement was being a good sport as he is not as interested in art as she is. “Thank God it’s time to go eat so he gets his freedom.”
The Sunday race is be an important test for both NASCAR and Chicago. Last year, weather cancellations hung over the weekend. When the skies finally cleared and the Cup Series race began after a delay, 4.8 million viewers tuned in to see cars zip below the city’s skyline as the sun set.
The race, NASCAR’s first on city streets, was widely hailed by fans as a thrilling changeup. The city agreed to host the race a second year despite pushback from nearby businesses and Loop residents who decried street closures, blocked park space and noise.
NASCAR chipped in $2 million to help pay for expensive police overtime needed to run the race and cut six days of street closures. The city and racing authority have the option to host the race for another year.
