NASCAR has announced it will hold its first-ever street race in Chicago over the July 1-2 weekend of the 2023 season.

The 2.2 mile (3.54km) temporary race track was first developed in iRacing, and hosted an online race in 2021.

Chicago’s street race would replace the NASCAR Cup Series trip to Road America, after racing there for the past two years.

NASCAR senior vice president of racing development and strategy Ben Kennedy said the series is incredibly excited for the historic street race.

“Really excited about announcing that for the first time with our national series that we’ll be bringing it to a street course, and what better place to do it than downtown Chicago, such an iconic city,” Kennedy said.

“You think about the history of sports there, the iconic monuments and facilities around Chicago, and the support that we’ve had around Chicago as well.

“Certainly the city of Chicago comes alive in the summer.

“It certainly comes alive around July 4th, so we think it’s gonna be really special from that perspective.

“Certainly a lot of work by the team in coming up with not only the vision for the iRacing event to be able to prove out what the track would look like, but then ultimately, what the site plan looks like, what the events and activities will look like on the event weekend, which will look significantly different from what we’ve seen at a lot of some of our other events.

“So, really excited about it, a lot of work by the team so far to get to where we’re at today; a lot of work to go before July 1st and 2nd of next year, though.”

The inaugural event in Chicago will be held alongside an IMSA-sanctioned series, though it is currently unknown which IMSA category it will be.

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