Record rainfall leaves fans at NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race wanting more

The checkered flag gave way to the plastic poncho on a dreary Sunday in Grant Park — but NASCAR officials and fans weren’t waving the white flag just yet.

As record-setting precipitation rained all over Chicago’s much-ballyhooed stock car parade, some of the disappointed spectators fled for cover in coffee shops and parking garages while others hunkered down trackside with rain gear and umbrellas in hopes of hearing the ear-splitting engines fire up again. 

NASCAR officials were still aiming for a wash later Sunday afternoon, calling off the Xfinity Series race that had been postponed due to shoddy weather a day earlier — a controversial decision for what’s essentially NASCAR’s minor league circuit — but remaining determined to hold the Cup Series main event later in the day.

That wouldn’t be much consolation for spectators who snagged pricy tickets for the downtown festival to see country artists Charley Crockett and Miranda Lambert, whose performances were called off due to flooding in Grant Park. 

The National Weather Service recorded more than 2.2 inches of rain by noon, already a Chicago record for the date July 2. NASCAR called them “unprecedented circumstances” for an unprecedented event. 

But for most race fans who talked to the Sun-Times — from among a crowd that, at least early in the day, was noticeably thinned out compared to Saturday’s attendance — they took the water and the waiting in stride. 

“It happens. It ain’t the first rain we’ve had in NASCAR,” upstate New Yorker Margaret Kanakos said, decked out in a green poncho while walking to the main gate. 

Other fans waited out the unrelenting rain huddled under awnings at the Millennium Park garage, while more crowded into businesses along Michigan Avenue. 

Ronald Jackson and his 14-year-old son Josiah drove from Portage, Indiana — “playing hooky” to experience their first-ever NASCAR event — waited it out under scaffolding outside a Starbucks, with the teen passing the time by practicing photography and keeping his eyes peeled for Lamborghinis.

“Whatever my son likes to do, I’m gonna support him,” Ronald Jackson said, adding that they’d settle for catching Bubba Wallace when he races in the Grant Park 220 Sunday afternoon — or even coming back Monday for a rescheduled race. 

Other fans with tickets whiled away the rain delay inside the track, watching specialized trucks try to vacuum away the pools of water that overtook parks of the course. 

Brothers Timothy and Cody Alguire, from the Quad Cities, took shelter in a merchandising tent while waiting for officials to announce when the race would start. Hardly their first NASCAR rain delay rodeo, they came prepared with ponchos. 

“It seems to not be NASCAR unless it rains,” said Timothy, 31, unfazed by the prospect of a Monday race. They drove in for the races and didn’t have to worry about booking another hotel night or rescheduling a flight.

Thomas Kurtz and his father waited for the race to start outside the Fountain Club.

Did the rain bother the father and son who traveled from southern Wisconsin?

“For me? Not at all,” Kurtz said.