The NASCAR Cup Series will take to the actual city streets on July 2nd, 2023. NASCAR announced that it will run its first street course race in the series’s history and they will take it to the windy city of Chicago, the race will be a part of the 2023 schedule.
NASCAR Heading to The City Streets in Chicago
NASCAR speed meets the Chicago streets.
@NASCAR and @IMSA are heading downtown for Chicago Street Race Weekend July 1-2, 2023.For more info & event updates➡️https://t.co/JqpyIlGv0i pic.twitter.com/BGaseFwc2H
— NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend (@NASCARChicago) July 19, 2022
It has been a long process but NASCAR has finally locked in the first ever real street course race in the history of NASCAR’s entirety. It will be a spectacle to see these 200-plus-mile-per-hour cars navigate the tight narrow streets of Chicago. I"m sure teams will be scrambling to get a grasp on what they"ll be up against when they unload the cars in Chicago.
The proposed track will be used for an IMSA Event as well as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced during the unveiling. The course will pass iconic landmarks throughout downtown Chicago as the cars will pass Grant Park, Buckingham Fountain, and the edge of Soldier Field, home to the Chicago Bears Of the NFL. Iconic streets such as Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive will be a part of the 2.2-mile street course.
Take a drive around @NASCARChicago with @BubbaWallace! https://t.co/waX1HRyHeb
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 19, 2022
The course was originally created on the IRacing platform which is the propelling factor in bringing the real street course to reality. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the amazing skyline and city hub setting was the determining factor in racing around Grant Park calling it a "no-brainer" when they made the decision.
The Chicago Street Course Race will replace the independence day race held at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconson. The race was held at Road America for the last two seasons and will now give way to a historic breakthrough for Nascar. It hasn"t yet been confirmed if the Nascar Xfinity Series, and Camping World Truck Series will also be racing in Chicago as the schedules for those series have not been released as of yet.
The versatility of the new Next Gen car that Nascar debuted this year in the NASCAR Cup Series, plus the proof of the concept that emerged from the Los Angeles Clash, have prompted the sanctioning body’s schedule makers to take the show on the road, or in this case, the downtown streets of Chicago, Illinois.
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