MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Imagine a street race where both the NASCAR Cup Series and the NTT IndyCar Series competed on the same weekend.
That would certainly be a blockbuster event, cross promoting the two biggest racing series in North America and exposing the product to many fans who may have never attended a race.
Imagine if the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, in the heart of Motor City, was such a place for automotive giants like Chevrolet, Ford, Honda and Toyota to showcase their brands on the same race course, on the same weekend.
It may not be as outlandish an idea as some may think. After all, prior to the July 2 Grant Park 220 Chicago Street Race who thought the NASCAR Cup Series could put on a knockout show on the streets of Chicago.
From a business standpoint, Detroit would be the perfect place for an IndyCar/NASCAR street race weekend, but the actual race course may be too narrow and too short for the bigger stock cars.
Also, Detroit had to utilize a dual pit lane in order to accommodate a full IndyCar field, which is 13 cars lighter than a Cup Series field.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar driver Christian Lundgaard likes the idea of exposing IndyCar to different race fans. NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race was designed to expose the stock car racing series to people who had never seen a race.
It is a similar approach to the July 22-23 Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway with four major concerts surrounding two IndyCar Series races.
“I have friends who won’t be coming to the race weekend at Iowa to watch the race, but attend the concerts,” Lundgaard said. “I think that is great because we get people out, and people that come for the music and see the racing and, hopefully, get interested in the sport and come to more races.
“That’s what we need.”
When asked his thoughts on the possibility of NASCAR and IndyCar turning the streets of a North American City into one of the biggest motorsports events of the year, Lundgaard was enthusiastic.
“I would not want to turn that down,” Lundgaard said. “I think that would only be cool, the biggest American racing series sharing the same track. As a street race, that would bring a of people there from all over the country, potentially all over the world.
“That would definitely be something super-exciting.
“It’s tough on street circuits to find the space for all the trailers, but I’m sure we would manage to find a way to sort that out if we had the opportunity.”
NASCAR and IndyCar share one racing weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Aug. 11-13 Brickyard event. It was originally created out of necessity as both NASCAR and IndyCar had to remake the schedule because of the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.
IndyCar and the NASCAR Xfinity Series competed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on the same day. The following day, Kevin Harvick drove to victory on the 2.5-mile oval in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Beginning in 2021, IndyCar, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Cup Series have all competed on the IMS road course. The NASCAR Cup Series is expected to return to the IMS oval in 2024.
“What is good about the second GP is we share the race weekend with NASCAR as well,” Lundgaard said. “I was asked if that changes anything because NASCAR puts down different rubber. I think it’s very good to have those two separated.”
Auto racing has to grow its audience, enticing younger fans to help support a sport that has appealed to an aging fan base. In recent years, big-name musical acts performing in conjunction with a race have proven popular to some, but polarizing to the older crowd.
NASCAR and IndyCar have to broaden the fan base, create new heroes and generate that “buzz” that makes a race the place to be in that community for that weekend.
It took a pandemic to finally create an IndyCar/NASCAR race weekend at the same venue. Now that NASCAR has proven it can take its show to the streets of a major city such as Chicago, imagine if both series joined together for a mega-street race weekend?
This story appeared in the July 26, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
