Even iRacing is part of the equation as street course in Chicago takes shape ahead of NASCAR race downtown on July 2.
Several items that have become familiar scenes at NASCAR races won’t exist in Chicago.
• The Xfinity teams will work on pit road. The Cup teams will work on Columbus Drive, in front of the media center which is on two levels of the Art Institute of Chicago. “We actually hosted some of those individuals at the Circuit of the Americas earlier this year so they could get a good sense of an event from a NASCAR perspective,” Giese says. “We have a solid security plan in and around the footprint supplemented with additional security inside, third party security like you would see at a lot of our other events.”
The emergency crews that handle the on-track work are coming from World Wide Technology Raceway, Michigan, the Milwaukee Mile, Road America and Iowa. Many of them have their own campers and are bringing their families. They are parking their campers on the backstretch at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. NASCAR is busing those workers into Chicago daily.
Construction of the president’s paddock club, the event’s largest structure, began two weeks ago. It’s a two-story structure that’s built above the tree line. Several grandstand locations are already in place and the main grandstand at the start-finish line is under construction. The suites are under development as well. Everything needed for construction was purchased locally.
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