Story By: Hal Jack
Photos By: Hal Jack
Chicago, IL–
Another wild weekend in Chicago came to a close with the Ally 48 finally taking a checkered flag for the first time in 80 races.
While Bowman took the checkered flag, this was the second straight year that the Grant Park 165 street race has been marred by rainy conditions that sent quite a few people packing early and forced NASCAR by rule to end the race at 820pm CST.
Despite the conditions it made for some great racing as Bowman had some challenges including running on wet weather tires versus some of the slicks that other drivers had switched back to gain that extra speed in the final laps. Bowman credited his crew for some great decisions late.
Tyler Reddick made a late charge, but he got into a wall while trying to run down Bowman. Ty Gibbs was third, followed by Joey Hand and Michael McDowell.
“We’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight, it’s going to be a bad deal,” a jubilant Bowman said. “I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
Bowman’s victory finished NASCAR’s second year on the street course in Chicago. It is expected to return next season, but the future of the weekend — a combination of racing and music that is designed more for NASCAR newcomers than its traditional fans — is unclear beyond 2025.
Some of the doubts come from fans themselves, as they watched on Saturday the lack of people attending the concert side of the weekend. Two fans we chatted with, said they heard about the concerts last minute and could never get this close up to Keith Urban for such a low-ticket value. At the time we checked, some fans showed us that they had gotten tickets on the secondary market for as low as $22 with fees. Another fan showed us his hospitality ticket inside for $88 plus fees. Not bad for racing and couple of good concerts to check out.
