Officers are hitting the brakes on the NASCAR Chicago Road Race, saying Friday that the annual Fourth of July weekend occasion won’t return for the 2026 season.
However the occasion may run by Grant Park once more in 2027, as NASCAR and metropolis officers attempt to hash out a brand new date and plans to streamline the buildout and breakdown of the course.
“Our purpose is for the Chicago Road Race to return in 2027 with an occasion that additional enhances the expertise for residents and guests alike, as we work collectively in the direction of a brand new potential date, shorter construct schedule, and extra tourism attracts,” Julie Giese, NASCAR Chicago Road Race president, mentioned in a letter despatched Friday to Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The announcement comes two weeks after the conclusion of a three-year run at Grant Park, which generated a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} but in addition prompted complications for residents attempting to maneuver downtown highway closures over a busy vacation weekend.
“We recognize NASCAR’s dedication to the Metropolis of Chicago and their dedication to persevering with their neighborhood engagement efforts, significantly their help of STEM schooling for our metropolis’s younger individuals,” a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s workplace mentioned in an announcement. “We look ahead to resuming discussions round a possible return of the NASCAR Chicago Road Race in 2027.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) mentioned the choice was “primarily pushed by the challenges of the calendar.” He mentioned town supplied a listing of tentative dates to NASCAR, of which “none of them actually work” with its 2026 race season schedule.
However not returning subsequent 12 months doesn’t imply the race can be gone for good, Hopkins mentioned.
“On the contrary, the whole lot I’ve seen thus far so far is that they plan to make use of this 12 months off to come back again tougher in 2027 with one thing that they will hopefully result in one thing extra everlasting, a extra everlasting date that can be theirs for the subsequent 5 to 10 years,” Hopkins mentioned.
Giese famous in her letter to the mayor that the NASCAR Chicago Road Race group will proceed to function from its downtown workplace and received’t halt any of its charity work within the metropolis subsequent 12 months.
“If this was a sluggish exit technique, they wouldn’t be doing that,” Hopkins mentioned. “They might lower and run they usually’re undoubtedly not. That’s to not say it will likely be straightforward to resolve this calendar battle. We’re not canceling Lollapalooza … we nonetheless have Style of Chicago as an ongoing factor, now we have all of the music festivals.”
Conversations about shifting the race’s schedule had already begun shortly after Shane van Gisbergen took the checkered flag at this 12 months’s Grant Park 165 race July 6. NASCAR additionally had already sharply decreased its setup and take-down time previous to this 12 months’s race, Giese has mentioned.
Regardless of these “significant efforts to cut back disruptions for residents and companies alongside the race route,” Ald. Invoice Conway (thirty fourth) mentioned he was disenchanted to study that officers couldn’t compromise on a special date — “particularly given how NASCAR has supplied Chicago the chance to shine on the world stage.”
Contributing: Fran Spielman
