Gentlemen, start your engines: The NASCAR Street Race descends on Chicago

First-ever street race a boon for the city, NBCUniversal looks to capitalize on unique event
For the first time in a very long time, Chicago is hosting a NASCAR race within the city limits and it’s not at some race track – it’s the streets of downtown Chicago in the inaugural NASCAR Street Race.
Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed a three-year deal for the NASCAR race, where it would also double as a fan festival. This year’s races take place in two separate races: NASCAR Xfinity The Loop 121 Saturday at 4 p.m. local time on USA Network and NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park Cup 220 on NBC and Peacock at 4:30 p.m. local time Sunday.
The races have no doubt caused controversy as DuSable Lake Shore Drive is closed for a few weeks to set up the race. Many residents are concerned about traffic, pollution, and noise issues and could push congestion onto other area streets and expressways including the Dan Ryan and Kennedy Expressways and impact public transit downtown. To top everything off, Chicago saw its worst air pollution in years this week thanks to smoke from Canadian wildfires, and NASCAR waltzing into town won’t help matters much.
The event hopes to put money into the city’s coffers at a time when it needs revenue and put Chicago in a positive spotlight for a change.
With that said, if you can’t make it down to the race (let’s face it…you’re not going down there if you don’t have a ticket), you can catch the race on your TV, in glorious 1080 high-definition.
As mentioned above, The NASCAR Street Race is being televised by USA and NBC, both part of NBCUniversal who shares Comcast as a corporate parent. NBC plans to cover the races “radio-style”, meaning commentators and reporters will be setup at four points on the twelve turn, 2.2-mile course. “The iconic city of Chicago presents incredible vantage points around the track and having our team in the middle of those scenes above the course will provide a high energy, fast paced broadcast of these two historical races,” said Jeff Behnke, who is vice-president of motorsports for NBC Sports.
NBC will also have reporters at pit rows and the “studio” shows will be held at Buckingham Fountain, originating from the Peacock Pit Box.
USA will have coverage on Saturday for the NASCAR Xfinity The Loop race, starting with practice and qualifying rounds earlier in the day. On Sunday, NBC/Peacock will start coverage at 4 p.m. with the race on both and the NASCAR Cup series post-race show airing exclusively on Peacock around 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, NBC 5 (NBC-owned WMAQ), NBC Sports Chicago, and Telemundo Chicago (WSNS) will have extended local coverage of the race.
“This is a very exciting time in the City of Chicago and our staff couldn’t be prouder to work on a project of this magnitude and present multi-platform coverage of it across our three local properties,” said John Schippman, VP of sports content of NBCUniversal Local Chicago, who covers all three stations. “The NASCAR Chicago Street Race will be a history-making moment for our city, and we are looking forward to being in the middle of all the action and take our viewers along for the ride.
NBC 5 plans to originate their early afternoon newscasts from Buckingham Fountain Friday (weather permitting), with Brant Miller on-site providing weather reports and reports on how Chicago is preparing for the race, as is Spanish-language WSNS with their news team. Friday night, NBC 5 plans to air a special in the “prime access” 6:30 p.m. time period called Race By The Lake, featuring sports anchors Leila Rahimi and Ruthie Polinsky with an in-depth look at both races over the weekend. Both will also host Start Your Engines: NASCAR’s First Street Race on NBC Sports Chicago Plus Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (the regular NBC Sports Chicago is carrying a White Sox game during this time) which serves as a local pre-game show.
All programming mentioned in the above paragraph is also being made available on NBC 5’s streaming news channel NBC Chicago News, available on a variety of platforms.
NBC 5 will also cover the race during its weekend newscasts and on its Sports Sunday show, and launched a website page at NBCChicago.com/NASCAR for more information on this weekend’s races. Other local news stations will also cover the street race and their impact on Chicagoans during their regularly scheduled newscasts.