Despite Colossal $50 Million Fail, Steve Phelps Shockingly Backs NASCAR’s Chicago Endeavors With Bold 4-Word Declaration

“We do have unfinished business.” Chicago Street Race’s event manager, Julie Giese, uttered these words four months before the 2024 race. And she showed exactly how determined NASCAR was to hold the city race. However, there were massive doubts that gripped fans even before 2023. Ranging from race cars ramming into Chicago buildings to drivers getting shot at while racing, misgivings were the norm. But the 2024 race happened and brought a ton of optimism.

Audience reach and certain revenue streams put up higher numbers than last year when viewed from the city lens. But the NASCAR lens reveals a great chunk of financial loss. Despite this discouraging turn of events, the sport’s executives are holding onto hope.

Is NASCAR overlooking a major lapse?

The basic idea of the Chicago venture was to rope in newer, younger audiences. The 12-turn, 2.2-mile pop-up course through Grant Park, down DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and up Michigan Avenue was distinctly different from a typical NASCAR oval race. And the drive to diversify the sport’s audiences is in full swing, which included adding Mexico City to the Cup race schedule for 2025. However, nagging rainfall, TV ratings, and total two-day attendance made for the negative factors. This year, NASCAR had to call off the Chicago Street Race after 58 laps due to heavy rain, and Alex Bowman was crowned the winner.

On top of the drenched disaster, NASCAR also did not strike even with its profits. In a recent interview with BrakeHard, President Steve Phelps outlined the tough pecuniary situation. “Chicago financially is, we’ll say a difficult race for us. It costs $50M to put that race on. And we unfortunately didn’t sell $50M in tickets or sponsorships.” 

However, he optimistically added, “But was it a smart decision for us? I believe it was.” This confirms the sport’s persistent effort to grow beyond ovals. The results were visible—the introduction of single-day ticket sales attracted more unique visitors. The 27,188 nonlocal attendees came from 24 countries—nine more than last year—and 46 states.

The nationally televised Cup Series race also generated $43.6 million in media value for Chicago. This marked an 85% hike over last year, being a dramatic gain. This was evident as Mother Nature’s hand was a little less severe this year. In 2023, the inaugural Fourth of July weekend event saw record rainfall that truncated races, canceled concerts, and left fans soaked.

This time, sunny skies prevailed for the Xfinity races at least, following which clouds cloaked the sky and brought rain to Cup Series drivers. This led to lower TV ratings—3.87 million viewers as compared to 4.8 million last year. However, the overall media impact jumped due to an increase in international coverage—from news stories to blogs—of the event.

Additionally, the city itself acclimatized more to NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race.

Meanwhile a salute from downtown Chicago

Although misgivings ran riot before the inaugural 2023 race, progress was made. Shane Van Gisbergen made history by winning the race on his debut start and made jaws drop. After that, all it took was NASCAR’s steady hand to slowly win the hearts of Chicago people. The results were visible this year. The second Chicago Street Race generated $128 million in total economic impact, a 17% increase over the inaugural event. Hotel bookings soared due to more non-local visitors and NASCAR employees and vendors. The event accounted for more than 38,000 hotel room nights, up 29% from last year. Clearly, NASCAR was bringing benefits for taking over two miles of downtown streets during peak summer.

The race weekend also supported 865 jobs and generated $9.6 million in local and state taxes, both numbers higher than last year. In October 2023, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed the 2024 race with NASCAR, agreeing to add $2 million for city expenses.

With the boost in the economy this year, Johnson is very optimistic: “This is a race without parallel in the world and I am pleased that the event has generated positive economic impact and supported hundreds of jobs over the last two years. I look forward to working collaboratively with my leadership team and the community to leverage this event to drive even greater impact next year.”

Evidently, the pros of the Chicago Street Race are motivating NASCAR officials. We can only wait and see whether the rain plays spoilsport again next year.