The 2024 NASCAR Chicago Street Race saw the officials put a new rule into practice for the first time. Basically, what NASCAR did was allow the team to make a strategy call in case the race was interpreted by weather or visibility issues. With the weather gods once again trying to foil NASCAR’s plan for a successful street race in Chicago, the officials quickly put on a timer for drivers to race for.

8:20 p.m. CT was the deadline set by the race officials after rain put the race on hold for 1 hour 43 minutes last Sunday. Making the most of the new rule, Alex Bowman was the driver who took the checkered flag, breaking his 80-race winless streak. However, despite being on the wrong end of the tire strategy call and finishing the race on DNF, C. Bell was glad about the new rule change. “I’m very, very glad that it is black and white now. There is a rule in place.” He said this before clinching a win at Loudon, a race that was also affected by poor visibility and rain.

But the Grant Park 165 race wasn’t the exception where this new rule was enforced. Rather, this will be implemented on any race track that does not have lights and is affected by weather delays. This was confirmed by NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer.

After rapid implementation in Chicago, NASCAR is willing to exercise the new rule change at Pocono

When the officials put the new rule into effect in Chicago, initially there was a lot of confusion. Primarily with how the race would end. So according to this new darkness rule, NASCAR provided the teams with the time until the race could stay green, and the driver who crossed the start-finish flag at the marked time and maintained his lead over the next two laps, a white flag, and a race concluding lap was crowned the winner of the race.

Further explaining how NASCAR decided the time for the race to end at Gran Park, Elton Sawyer said in an interview with SiriusXM, “We put language in the rule book in the off-season that gave us the ability for facilities like Chicago or this week at Pocono, or Indy or Michigan that doesn’t have lights to look at sunset and decide on a predetermined time, which is what we did, and then we communicated that to the industry, the teams, giving that time prior to starting the second stage.”

Sawyer further emphasized what made the decision even more valid at the Chicago Street Race and went on to add, “Once we got to the end of the first stage, it was pretty evident to us it was going to be difficult to get to lap 75, and then looking at the night before about an 8:30 sunset, we felt like we were comfortable and right on the edge of still having enough sunlight to get to 8:20 and that’s where we landed on. Again, that rule will be in effect this weekend at Pocono.”

While we may like NASCAR to complete the entire race, this season has already shown why such a rule needed to be put in place. However, with the second edition of the Chicago Street Race mired by rain, the big question is: will NASCAR even return to the Windy City in 2025?

Uncertainty looms over NASCAR’s return to Chicago in 2025

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The original agreement between NASCAR and the city of Chicago to run the street race was for three years. However, both sides do have the option to opt out of the agreement, which could be on the cards following last Sunday’s race. Mayor Brandon also remained tight-lipped about the future of the race. Another option is whether the race could be moved to a different date away from the July 4th weekend, but that would lead to shuffling the entire Cup Series schedule.

Sunday’s race was cut short by 17 laps, despite trimming the length compared to last year’s event. Another factor that could weigh into the decision is that the locals have voiced their concerns over the NASCAR race before the second edition. Therefore, another year of washed-out races and not meeting expectations could be detrimental to its future. Not to forget, NASCAR themselves are in a tough spot regarding the race they want to put on the 2025 schedule.

Their ambitious plans of taking Cup racing internationally to either Montreal or Mexico City further cast gloomy clouds over the Chicago Street race. There has to be a cap on the number of road course races on the schedule. Also, the potential exit of a good oval venue would not be appreciated by traditional fans. So it’s fair to say that NASCAR is walking on a tightrope and will have to make a sound call about returning to Chicago next year.