CHICAGO — As the clock struck 10 p.m. last Thursday, Jeremy Casperson found himself immersed in overseeing the construction of the Chicago Street Course. This temporary circuit, nestled at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Drive, was set to host NASCAR races for the third consecutive year.
“This is the time the track comes alive,” Casperson noted amid the ambient sounds of the nearby L train rumbling through downtown.
Constructing a racetrack in any major city can be a daunting task, but doing so in Chicago — the third-largest city in the United States — proves particularly challenging. When NASCAR announced its plan to race around Grant Park in the summer of 2022, skepticism surrounded the feasibility of such an ambitious project.
However, three years later, NASCAR has successfully established a world-class street racing circuit within the bustling environment of a major metropolitan area.
“I think that this is certainly a well-designed street race,” remarked Denny Hamlin, driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of 23XI Racing. “You have some really great passing zones. That’s the most important thing. It’s one thing to try to kind of parade around the city, it’s another to actually have a racetrack that you can race at and pass at.”
The future of NASCAR’s presence in Chicago remains uncertain, as the league and city just wrapped up the third year of a three-year agreement, which includes an option for an additional two years. Regardless of whether NASCAR returns in 2026, the organization has garnered invaluable insights from the construction of the 2.2-mile, 12-turn track that will shape future endeavors in constructing similar urban circuits.
This year’s track build was completed in just 25 days, a reduction from the previous year’s 42-day timeframe. The construction spanned seven busy downtown roads, necessitating multi-day road closures, making efficiency upgrades a priority, as emphasized by track president Julie Giese.
Casperson highlighted the advancements made in this year’s construction: “What we’ve learned is just efficiencies on how we load trucks, routes we bring trucks in, the number of people we have loading blocks versus unloading blocks to help speed up the process.”
This year, the loading rate improved significantly, doubling from an initial rate of 20 blocks an hour to now reaching 40 to 50 blocks per hour.
Minimizing disturbances for the local population has been a critical focus for NASCAR. Overcoming community concerns was a major obstacle when pursuing a race in Chicago, and it continues to inform the organization’s efforts to shorten road closure durations.
Casperson, a professional civil engineer who joined NASCAR in February 2021, plays a pivotal role in planning and executing the track construction. His expertise aligns with NASCAR’s efforts to expand racing beyond traditional venues. He relocated to Chicago with his family in mid-June, ensuring he could manage the project closely and oversee the teardown following the race.
Working almost around the clock, Casperson described the pace of his work life: “I can’t afford to sleep. I’m dealing with non-stop fire drills.”
The setup of the track involves approximately 2,000 barriers that are crucial for safety and course design. Stored about a mile away from the track, these barriers weigh around 10,000 pounds each and are designed to create a secure racing environment.
The daily goal is to install between 140 to 160 barriers, accompanied by safety fencing, creating a complex puzzle akin to a giant Lego set.
Casperson aptly compared it to intricate Lego constructions: “That’s a pretty good comparison, actually. Lego sets nowadays come with these books that are 200 pages long, and you build one piece, and you don’t know exactly what you’re building. Then, somehow, at the end, it’ll come together. And that’s exactly what happens here. You build one street at a time, and it looks disjointed and discombobulated. But on days like tonight, where we get to tie everything together, you get that satisfaction.”
With numerous components and a tight deadline, meticulous attention to detail is essential. After three years of this initiative, NASCAR reports no major incidents have occurred at the Chicago Street Course, underscoring the league’s capability to replicate the model elsewhere in the future.
Chase Elliott, a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, commented on the consistency of the track design over the years: “The way they repeated the track and just the measurements and the corner angles and braking zones — all the things were extremely similar from year to year.”
As dawn broke on Friday, Casperson undertook a thorough inspection of the course, notably examining Turn 1 and Turn 6, which were designed in close proximity to each other. He ensured that there was adequate spacing between barriers to mitigate risks, critical during high-speed sections of the track.
After assessing the layout, Casperson noted damages to sections of the track and took swift action to address them.
On his rounds, he identified a prevalent bump in Turn 10, which required immediate repair to maintain racing safety and performance.
Casperson also pointed out lessons learned from previous years regarding the banners along the track. To combat wind disruption that had plagued the initial races, the team implemented new methods to secure the banners, ensuring they could withstand the high-speed passage of cars without compromising safety.
“I held my breath every time cars were on the track,” he admitted. “I like to problem-solve, and this is a problem.”
The successful construction of the Chicago Street Course has become a case study in effective logistical management and problem-solving within NASCAR. By Friday morning, the track was ready for the race, demonstrating that the organization is capable of developing street courses in bustling urban settings.
The future of NASCAR’s urban racing remains an open question, but the lessons learned in Chicago will influence where they venture next.
“You’re in a big city, one of the biggest in the U.S.,” Hamlin concluded. “You’ve got a very racy racetrack, and you’ve got a beautiful backdrop. Those are the things that I think are very important to building a street race, and anywhere they look going forward hopefully has all the things that Chicago has brought.”
image source from：nytimes
