Plans to return NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race to the downtown lakefront next spring “have stalled,” as the auto racing group “hits a stumbling block over the size of a state subsidy it’s seeking to defray some of its costs,” according to sources cited by Greg Hinz of CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS. Sources confirmed that talks on the proposal, which would move the event from its previous July dates to shortly after Memorial Day, had “proceeded far enough that local political leaders and other dignitaries were questioned about their availability to attend an announcement press conference.” But the grand announcement, “set for early June, never occurred” — and it has “not been rescheduled.” An insider noted that those talks “now are ‘in limbo,’” leaving “little time to resolve the matter” before NASCAR has to finalize its 2027 racing schedule. Sources said that lawmakers, at the request of Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Welch, were “poised to award” NASCAR a $15M state tourism grant via the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. Instead, the Legislature “appropriated only the same” $5M figure NASCAR got before it shifted its 2026 races from Chicago to Joliet. According to the legislation, the money is to “go toward ‘costs associated with (NASCAR) operating expenses.’” NASCAR is confirming that, though “it’s interested, no deal has been reached” to return the race to Chicago next year (CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS, 7/29).
TALKS CONTINUE: NASCAR COO Ben Kennedy said that the racing company is “in separate discussions with both Joliet and Chicago for next year’s schedule.” In Chicago, Robert Channick wrote if negotiations drag on with the state over the DCEO grant, time “may run out on the Chicago Street Race.” NASCAR is “planning to finalize its 2027 racing schedule by August” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/29).