Fans — and once again, rain — flooded downtown Chicago Sunday for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race weekend’s main event, the Grant Park 165.
Thousands watched as race cars roared by on the city streets between lengthy delays sparked by intermittent downpours for a second year.
Rain fell hard to delay the race’s start and picked up again early into the competition, bringing out caution flags, slip-ups and ponchos. Thousands of NASCAR fans left Grant Park as the race came to a temporary halt. The race resumed later, but was cut short as daylight faded.
The shrunken crowd cheered as drivers suddenly pressed for time muscled for position, sped and crashed. The white flag signaling a last lap came out as Chicago’s sky gained a purple hue in the sunset.
Driver Alex Bowman crossed the finish line with no car close behind him. Most seats were empty when his purple Chevrolet cruised to victory. Bowman did a burnout in front of the dotted stands to celebrate his first win in over two years and handed the checkered flag through the fence to a young fan.
Bowman praised Chicago’s cityscape racetrack as “super fun” after the win.
“Obviously it’s been two chaotic races with the weather. Maybe we’ll get a dry one next year,” he said.
Andrew Salbego of Lakeview stuck around to see the finish.
“It was good. It’s just kind of a shame that it’s been two years of rainouts,” the 22-year-old racing fan said. “It’d be really nice to see what they can do without the rain.”
But hordes of people made a different decision, leaving the Grant Park grounds early despite the high ticket price. Berwyn resident José Fernando, a towel covering his head, walked among the soaked crowd heading for the exit during the race’s longest delay. The dry Saturday undercard race was “awesome,” the 25-year-old said. But he didn’t want to stick around in the gloomy, wet conditions.
“I’m not trying to experience that from last year,” Fernando said. “Hopefully it turns out better next year. I really had high hopes for this.”
A bright start, rainout and burnout
The race day got off to a hope-inducing start. Sunny, warm weather filled the early afternoon. The full-festival race and concert offerings, mostly canceled last year by lightning and torrential downpours, were up and running for most of the weekend before bad weather sharply curtailed the main event.
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 Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, but in only its second year, Chicago’s contest already had a special place in her heart, she said.
“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 called him 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.”
She was rooting for pole sitter and Cup Series leader Kyle Larson, although her son is a Chase Elliot fan.
The fence just feet away from the track along Columbus Drive was completely lined by fans long before the race’s start.
Marie Rushing, 35, claimed a spot there ahead of her first NASCAR race. The Oak Lawn resident said she scored tickets at racer Bubba Wallace’s “block party” event Friday in Douglass Park.
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.
As the race began, Mayor Brandon Johnson came out to cheers and jeers.
“Enjoy Chicago, enjoy the weather, enjoy the food,” Johnson said to the crowd moments before the rain began.
Johnson quickly changed out of a long-sleeve shirt into a full driver-style fire suit to ride in a pace car at the start.
The big race wasn’t the only thing drawing visitors to downtown Chicago. As fans checked out 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.
Museum visits rose 20% this year for the race weekend, an Art Institute spokesperson said. Visitors appeared undisturbed by the commotion of the race as NARCAR fans filed by outside.
The smell of rain and burnt rubber
The stands emptied just minutes after former Chicago Bear and race grand marshal Matt Forte shouted for drivers to “start their engines.” Viewers grumbled as they found cover, some recalling the torrential downpours that hit the 2023 race. But most visitors returned moments later after most teams put rain tires on their cars.
NASCAR officials declined to comment on whether the race was affected by an incident involving two apparently pro-Palestinian protesters who climbed a fence and handcuffed themselves to it before first responders took them down.
When the race finally started, rain quickly fell again in heaps.
Michael Wilson and his family, all of whom were clad in rain ponchos as they stood under an awning, had come prepared.
“Anytime it says sunny, bring your poncho,” Wilson laughed. He and his family came out to NASCAR as casual fans and planned to wait out the rain as long as they could.
Driver Shane van Gisbergen, who won the inaugural Grant Park race last year and the undercard Xfinity Series race Saturday, took the lead early. He radioed in to complain about the conditions as water puddled on the road and mist sprayed behind other cars.
“We can hardly drive here,” van Gisbergen told his pit crew. “It’s nearly undriveable.”
Moments later, van Gisbergen’s car was struck by another driver. The crash wrecked van Gisbergen’s car and took the favorite out of the race well before the halfway mark. Shortly afterward, race officials stopped the competition to get standing water off the track. The delay lasted around two hours.
A massive crowd camped out at the corner of Balbo Avenue and Columbus Drive during the wet start. Their lawn chairs, as close to the fence just a few feet away from the track as possible, were abandoned.
Many fans were at first undeterred. The rain wasn’t as bad as last year, said Marshall Velasco of Logan Square. Velasco sat under a tree on Columbus nonplussed and said he planned to stick it out.
“I wasn’t watching the weather close enough, so I didn’t bring any ponchos,” he said.
The 71-year-old said this is his second year coming with his brother and son, and they’ve made it a tradition.
“I like the smell of the fuel,” Velasco laughed. “I used to work at the airport.”
Thousands of fans continued to brave the weather as the smell of rain and burnt rubber fell over downtown Chicago. They held onto the spots they staked out along the 2.2-mile, 12-turn track built atop Michigan Avenue, Columbus and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
But most fans, it seemed, left during the storm. Thousands of seats remained empty as the race continued with several slow-downs for caution flags. Another crash took Larson out of the race, leaving the competition without two of its brightest stars.
Bowman pulled into a victory lane that was far less crowded than last year’s after winning. His crew drenched him in water as he climbed out his window and stood up to celebrate.
As Lakeview resident Salbego filed out with the other fans who stuck around, he praised Chicago’s skyline and the hard-fought race. It was cool to see cars zip down the same downtown roads he drives on, he said.
“Hopefully it does come back,” he said. “I’d love to see it come back.”
