CHICAGO — The deluge that began Saturday night continued Sunday morning as NASCAR drivers awoke and prepared for the inaugural Chicago Street Race.
Rivers of rainwater flooded the downtown course, and for a while it looked like a boat race would be more appropriate than a car race.
What did driver Brad Keselowski think when he saw so much standing water on the track Sunday morning?
“It’s tough,” Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Ford, said an hour before the scheduled start. “It’s not what we wanted. We wanted a beautiful weekend that everybody can enjoy. But the cards are what they are, and we’ll play them as best as we can.”
The race was delayed an hour and a half by rain after the resumption of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race was canceled and Cole Custer declared the winner.
“We cannot control god,” driver Denny Hamlin tweeted during the delay. “What we can control is our decisions and reactions to unforeseen circumstances. Please @NASCAR. Do not do this. We have too much momentum around this weekend to change the narrative now.”
But the race went on — won by Shane van Gisbergen in his first Cup Series start after it was shortened from 100 to 75 laps because of darkness — whether all the drivers were in agreement or not.
“It’s not the safest thing we’ve ever done,” Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Ford, told the Tribune on his way to the start.
The rain didn’t seem to bother many of the fans who crammed the souvenir shop to load up on T-shirts, caps, toy cars and everything else on the planet. But like the rained-out first night game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 8, 1988, Mother Nature proved once again who’s boss.
The weather assuredly was a huge downer for NASCAR and the city, which teamed up to put together what officials repeatedly called a “historic” event — the first street race in the 75-year history of the Cup Series.
There were few mentions Sunday of the 46-year-old man who somehow got onto the course late Saturday for a little joyride after the day’s race was canceled because of lightning.
“I did not know that,” driver Ty Dillon said. “That’s awesome.”
The man was apprehended by Chicago police and received three citations but at least had a story to tell his friends forever. I asked Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields, the grand marshal of the event, if he wanted to take a spin on the course himself.
“Yeah, but too late now,” he said. “Maybe next year.”
Fields, who played in a monsoon in the Bears’ Week 1 win over the San Francisco 49ers last year, had no advice for the drivers on how to overcome a torrential downpour. He admitted he isn’t the most knowledgeable auto racing fan.
“I grew up playing video games, but I’ve never been to a NASCAR race,” he said.
So who was Fields rooting for?
“I don’t know any drivers,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you.”
What about Bubba?
“Bubba Watson?” he said.
“That’s the golfer,” his friend said, laughing.
Fields later got to meet Bubba Wallace at the weekly pre-race ritual known as the Drivers Meetings, where the drivers hobnob with sponsors and VIPs, watch a video of the ground rules and bow their heads in prayer.
Mayor Brandon Johnson took the podium at the meeting and welcomed the drivers to “the greatest city in the entire fricking world.” Johnson, who replaced Lori Lightfoot — the mayor who for better or worse signed the three-year deal with NASCAR — bragged about the greatness of Chicago and encouraged drivers to stick around town after the race and “spend as much money as you possibly can.”
Johnson then launched into a self-described “political speech” about funding schools, better transportation and affordable housing before giving a shout-out to Fields.
“Glad we have our brother, Justin Fields,” Johnson said. “We’re looking forward to a Super Bowl or World Series.”
Fields may be able to take the Bears to the Super Bowl someday. Expecting him to help the Cubs or White Sox get to the World Series is asking a lot. The Sox didn’t get any love in NBC’s opening video on NASCAR coming to Chicago, which featured the Cubs, Bulls, Bears and Blackhawks.
Sox fans could only shake their heads at yet another in a seemingly unending series of slights by national media outlets.
But at least they had Dillon, racing in the No. 77 Chevy Camaro sponsored by the Sox. The good-natured driver walked around in the rain before the race, talking to fans while wearing a “Southside” jersey. It was easy to mistake him for some dude from Bridgeport.
“To have the support of Sox fans all around town has been really cool,” Dillon told the Tribune. “Everybody is yelling, ‘South Side, South Side,’ so I feel like a little part of the team a little bit. It’s an honor to represent such a passionate fan base. My friends from the South Side educated me about it.
“Obviously you want to represent them and go win the race and have a good showing for all the fans, but other than that, just show the toughness and grittiness that Chicago fans know about.”
The 2.2-mile, 12-turn track was the biggest mystery for drivers going into the weekend. They had only one day to practice on the street track before Sunday because the city didn’t completely shut down the streets until Friday night.
“They did an amazing job for what this is,” Dillon said. “Obviously with the rain it’s going to get interesting, but it’s a great event and so cool to walk to your racecar from a downtown city. It’s a unique experience.”
Keselowski said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the track’s grip, before the rain at least.
“A lot of work and effort went into it,” he said. “The track only existed in computer models before Saturday morning, so that was the only frame of reference we had and it certainly exceeded the computer models.”
Despite the weather delays and the security lapse that allowed the rogue driver to get on the track, many are hoping the Chicago Street Race becomes a tradition past the three-year contract that runs through 2025.
“I hope so, but you can’t tell with the weather today,” local racing historian Stan Kalwasinki said. “We need to bring major-league racing to Chicago. The crowd they had (Saturday) was the beginning of a big, big weekend, and then with this weather being this bad and overcast … heck, you can’t even see some of the buildings today with the clouds and fog cover.
“I’d love to see racing come back to Chicago. It’s been a long time, 67 years, since that last NASCAR race at Soldier Field.”
It wasn’t exactly a perfect day for racing, but drivers dealt with the obstacles as if they had driven our streets forever.
There’s no such thing as a slow lane in Chicago.
