2024 Grant Park 165

 

The Chicago Street Course is a 2.2 mi (3.5 km) street circuit located in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. The track was initially a conceptual track on iRacing made for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series in 2021.

The track for the race ended up being the exact same layout as the version used in 2021 for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. The start/finish line is located on South Columbus Drive in front of Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. The cars will go south and then turn left onto East Balbo Drive and then right onto South Lake Shore Drive (also part of U.S. Route 41), which is alongside Lake Michigan. The cars will then turn right onto East Roosevelt Road and then make another right, which gets them back onto South Columbus Drive where they are going north. They will then reach the intersection of South Columbus Drive and East Balbo Drive again and will make a left turn. When they are back on East Balbo Drive, they will cross a bridge over the Metra Electric District tracks. Next, the cars will turn right onto South Michigan Avenue and go north, go onto East Congress Plaza Drive and back onto South Michigan Ave. Lastly, they will make a right turn onto East Jackson Drive, go back across the Metra Electric tracks, and right back onto South Columbus Drive to the start/finish line.^[9]

On October 20, 2023, NASCAR announced that the 2024 Cup Series Chicago Street Race would be shortened from 220 miles (354.056 km) and 100 laps to 165 miles (265.542) and 75 laps.^[10]

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 1:28.443 seconds and a speed of 89.549 mph (144.115 km/h).^[11]

Kyle Larson scored the pole for the race with a time of 1:27.836 and a speed of 90.168 mph (145.111 km/h).^[12]

As it rained after the five-minute signal before engines started, NASCAR delayed the start as is required since it was sunny during practice and qualifying. As a result, on Lap 15, at 4:58 p.m. CDT, NASCAR sent a bulletin to teams announcing the time-certain finish rule was set for 8:20 p.m. CDT, meaning 75 laps or one lap after the set time. This rule is similar to most motorsport series that have time-certain finishes.^[13] Under the new curfew rule, there would be no overtime, and once the leader crosses the finish line upon the expiration of time, the final lap begins.

On Lap 17, Corey LaJoie impacts the wall at East Jackson Boulevard (Turn 11). Pit lane remains closed because of rain as the stage ends on Lap 20, the first of two points-paying laps for the top ten. Shane van Gisbergen wins Stage One, and pits open on Lap 21. All cars not on rain tires change to wets. On the ensuing restart on Lap 25, Chase Briscoe contacts van Gisbergen at Columbus Drive where cars turn left to East Balbo Avenue (Turn 6), causing the defending champions' car to slam the right-side wall, ending his day and causing a safety car. With visibility and standing water an issue (common with street circuits), NASCAR red flags the race for 1 hour, 15 minutes. Drivers are sent to the cars, but another rain shower in Turn 11 creates an issue with more standing water, leading to another 28 minute delay to remove the standing water, for a total of 1 hour, 43 minutes. Teams are told all restarts will be single-file, with the restart on Lap 30, with one hour remaining.

On the Lap 30 restart, Christopher Bell passes Ty Gibbs on the run from Columbus Drive to East Balbo. Shortly after, Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. collide in that turn. Both recover. On Lap 33, Kyle Larson is trying to overtake Ty Gibbs for second when he locks up his tires and buries his Saudi Aramco-sponsored Chevrolet into the tyre barriers, causing a safety car. Bell and Gibbs are leading the field on the Lap 38 restart, with eight laps remaining in the stage and about 40 minutes remaining in the race.

On Lap 42, with a dry line potentially forming with pit closure coming for the end of the second stage, a group of cars led by Austin Dillon, Austin Hill, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, Ryan Blaney, and William Byron pitted to switch to slicks. This causes leaders Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland, John Hunter Nemechek, and Tyler Reddick among the leaders (primarily Toyotas) to pit for slicks on Lap 43. Once the leader starts Lap 44, pit lane is closed with two laps remaining in Stage 2, with 30 minutes remaining in the race.

New leaders Joey Hand and Alex Bowman stay out on rain tires, and finish first and second at the end of Lap 45, the second points-paying lap. The leaders stay on rain tires for the Lap 49 restart, hoping the delta for rain and slick tire performance is sufficient. Bell, who led before pit stops, restarts 13th on Lap 49, with approximately fifteen minutes remaining. On Lap 51, with 14 minutes remaining in the race, Bowman passes Hand on Lake Shore Drive where it joins East Roosevelt Road (Turn 4), and with 12 minutes remaining, Josh Berry crashes into the tire barriers on Lake Shore Drive to bring out the safety car. The delta between rain and slick tires has changed in favour of the slicks, and the Bell team asks that double-file restarts be used, which NASCAR declines. The restart occurs on Lap 54, with 4:30 remaining, or about four laps when the two laps after the finish rule starts.. The Toyotas on slicks were faster, but with a minute and a half remaining, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. collides with Martin Truex, Jr. (both on rain tires), making contact with Christopher Bell on Balbo Drive.

On Lap 56, Bowman crosses the finish at 8:20 p.m., marking the expiration of time and the beginning of the final two laps. Tyler Reddick is now third, best among the cars with slicks. Reddick and Ty Gibbs easily pass Joey Hand, who is still on rain tires at Turn 6, with the gap between Reddick and Bowman fast closing. At 8:21 p.m., Bowman takes the signal for the final lap, with Reddick fast closing. Only the optimum line is dry.

Reddick puts right-side tires on wet sections of at Roosevelt Road (Turn 4), making contact with the inside barrier, and then left side tires on wet sections in Turn 5 on the exit of Columbus Drive, making contact with the outside barriers, ending his efforts to catch Bowman.

Bowman successfully stays on the rain tires and ended an 80-race losing streak (last win in March 2022 at Las Vegas) in the process.

Stage One Laps: 20

Stage Two Laps: 25

Stage Three Laps: 30

• Lead changes: 9 among 6 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 5 for 19 laps
• Red flags: 1 for 1 hour, 43 minutes and 1 second
• Time of race: 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 24 seconds
• Average speed: 54.921 miles per hour (88.387 km/h)

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side, as part of a radio style broadcast for the race. Rick Allen and Steve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth. MRN broadcaster Mike Bagley called the race from Turns 1–2 and 6–10 on South Columbus Drive and East Balbo Drive, Dillon Welch had the call from Turn 4 on DuSable Lake Shore Drive and Roosevelt Road, and Jeff Burton had the call on Turn 11 on South Michigan Avenue and East Jackson Drive. Dave Burns, Kim Coon, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane.

Radio coverage of the race was broadcast by Motor Racing Network (MRN) and was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.