This Sunday’s Chicago Street Race is one event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule that most series executives, teams and drivers hope will go off without a hitch.
But there is a laundry list of variables that come with racing on the 2.2-mile street course in downtown Chicago.
It’s the first time the NASCAR Cup Series will compete on a street circuit in its 75-year history. Secondly, the Next Gen cars will run mufflers to help limit the noise in the city.
And three, it provides an even playing field for all drivers, as none of them have ever physically logged a lap on the makeshift track — which incorporates Columbus Drive, Jackson Boulevard, Michigan Avenue, Roosevelt Road, Balbo Drive and DuSable Lake Short Drive.
“It’s amazing that we are running the actual street course in the simulator, and one doesn’t even exist yet. The streets of Chicago are still open, business is still running as usual and we won’t even have a race track until Friday night,” noted Cliff Daniels, crew chief for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wheeled by Kyle Larson.
But even time on the simulator can’t prepare the Cup Series field for what’s about to happen.
“Until you get laps there, maybe you’re around cars and think, ‘OK, maybe I can kind of out-brake someone here or get a run off here.’ It’s kind of hard to tell when you’re running on the sim by yourself,” said Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney.
He doesn’t anticipate the 50-minute practice session on Saturday morning, prior to afternoon qualifying, will be enough for any driver to get comfortable with the tight, 90-degree corners on the 12-turn course.
But to the No. 12 Ford driver, that’s part of the unique challenge with the Chicago event.
“The beauty of it: We’re all running the same race track. You just try to learn it faster than everyone else,” Blaney said. “I really hope that we don’t go and make fools of ourselves if we go there and just wad everything up.”
Points leader Martin Truex Jr. expects a rough track from the moment he rolls past the start-finish line on South Columbus Drive.
“These cars don’t have a lot of suspension travel, they are really stiff, they bounce a lot. If it’s as bouncy as I think it’s going to be, it could be a handful, so I really don’t know,” Truex said.
Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, who has won three races this season, believes the 100-lap race will be about survival.
“Yeah, we’re racing cars that were kind of made for road racing, but they’re still 3,600 pounds and big, heavy stock cars and we’re trying to run them on streets,” Busch said. He expects there will be “bumping and banging,” and likely a few run-ins with the track barriers.
“It’s survival,” he added.
Like every other driver who will line up on the starting grid, Busch’s only preparation has been virtual — split between iRacing and the simulator. While it can’t compare to taking his No. 8 Chevrolet for a spin on the circuit, the sim time has still given him a chance to mentally prepare for the bumpy surface and blind corners that await him in Chicago.
“The wall in turn eight before you go around the left-hander is, to me, really narrow over there. You’re barely trying to miss getting your right front ripped off; not bouncing off that and killing your car on the left side,” Busch described.
However, he knows that the tight quarters will likely incite door-to-door action that the thousands of fans watching will find exhilarating.
“It’s a spectacle, right?” Busch said.
For Busch, writing off the Chicago Street Race as a success is all about giving fans a good story to tell, whether the drivers like the chaos involved or not.
“It’s something that I don’t think NASCAR has ever done in a long, long time — the Cup Series, if ever,” Busch noted.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola agrees.
“Regardless if it turns out to be a great race or a horrible one, it is still creating a lot of buzz, a lot of attention and a lot of media. Our sport needs that,” said Almirola, who drives the No. 10 Ford. “We don’t want our sport to stay flat. It declined for years, it got flat and then started to grow back in the right direction. I feel like the industry as a whole needs that growth.”