One of the biggest topics of discussion this weekend among NASCAR drivers, media and race fans is whether the Chicago Street Race will return next year for a fourth straight year.
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The talk this week has been mixed. Drivers like Chase Elliott — if he were in NASCAR’s shoes and had to make a decision to stay in or leave Chicago — would prioritize continuing racing at a place like Nashville Superspeedway versus extending NASCAR’s only street race in Chicago.
And then there’s Denny Hamlin, who unlike Elliott, isn’t ready to wave goodbye to Chicago. “What I like about it is, you’re in a big city, one of the biggest in the U.S.,” Hamlin said on Saturday during media availability.
“You’ve got a very racy racetrack and you’ve got a beautiful backdrop. So those are the things that I think are very important to building a street race,” he added.
Hamlin has heard the talk that Sunday may be the last race in Chicago and that places like San Diego, Philadelphia and possibly even Vancouver or Toronto would be the next stop for a multi-year street race similar to the three-year tenure in Chicago.
“Obviously, anywhere they look going forward hopefully has all the things that Chicago has brought,” said Hamlin, who also complimented NASCAR and city officials by saying, “This is certainly a well-designed street race.”
But Hamlin isn’t ready to give up on the Windy City yet. In fact, you might say he would like to double down — not only by racing along the lakefront in downtown Chicago, but also by bringing racing back to the NASCAR-owned Chicagoland Speedway (CLS), which is about 50 miles southwest of the city center and remains in near race-ready shape.
“I’d like to see us run both,” Hamlin said of CLS and the Chicago Street Race. “I personally would like to see them do everything they can to keep it here (in Chicago). I’d like to see the city rally behind this race. I could just tell you that non-racing fans at the hotel I’m staying at are talking about the race. I think that it’s certainly got some sort of economic impact to the city itself.
“We’re certainly exposing some new fans to this. I think it’s very important. I think you try everything you can to get this thing back here in Chicago, because I believe it is an important place for us.”
Hamlin has heard all the talk from his peers and others in the sport that Chicago will be gone from the NASCAR schedule for at least the near future after the checkered flag falls Sunday.
“I don’t know where you go next, not really sure,” Hamlin said. But then he proposed what he called a “wild thought”: a street race on an oval layout. Now that would be interesting.
But there are caveats and hurdles that would have to be overcome. “All you need is just flat pavement to make a racetrack,” Hamlin said. “We run a flat (Busch) Clash (at Bowman-Gray Stadium, which encircles a college football field), right? It’s at a flat track and we kind of make it work.
“There are so many things to put on a race so I wouldn’t know. But there’s a lot of hospitality and stuff around this track that you need miles to expand into. I’m not sure the right place, I just know that it seems like it works here (in Chicago).”
