BEN KENNEDY

CHICAGO — (AP) — NASCAR will celebrate its 75th season with an unprecedented street race through downtown Chicago in yet another radical change to the once staid schedule. Kennedy told The Associated Press he began working on both the Coliseum and Chicago street race in 2019. The Chicago race will be paired with an IMSA sports car race the day before, as well as music and entertainment options located along the 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course. Kennedy, however, confirmed to the AP that the Chicago street course will replace the road course race at Road America on the Cup schedule. By moving into downtown Chicago, NASCAR keeps a race in the Midwest region while returning to a coveted market.

NASCAR has added its first street course to the Cup schedule with a planned 2023 race through downtown Chicago.

The streets around Grant Park, from Lake Shore Drive to South Michigan Avenue, will become a NASCAR race course for a televised Cup Series event next summer.

In scheduling Bristol for Easter, NASCAR stripped the premier Cup Series of all but one off weekend spanning from February until November. The conversion of Bristol to a dirt track last year was the first Cup race on dirt in 50 years. But NASCAR had early experience on the surface prior to the Modern Era with 501 races on dirt from 1949 to 1970. Jim Roper in a Lincoln won the first Cup Series race on dirt in 1948 on 0.75-mile Charlotte (Old) Speedway. ... NASCAR has had 77 different drivers win on dirt, led by Hall of Famer Lee Petty with 46 victories.

Joey Logano won the exhibition Busch Light Clash on Sunday on the temporary quarter-mile track built inside Memorial Coliseum.

NASCAR Clash Auto Racing A temporary auto racing track is shown inside the Coliseum ahead of a NASCAR exhibition race in Los Angeles, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer) (Jenna Fryer)LOS ANGELES — (AP) — The first time Eric Garcetti learned NASCAR was hoping to open the year at the Coliseum one week ahead of the Super Bowl, the Los Angeles Mayor couldn't grasp the idea. NASCAR is hoping to piggyback on the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl, scheduled a week from Sunday at Sofi Stadium, less than 10 miles away. “Los Angeles is the sports capital of the world, and it really feels like it this week. We can (host) NASCAR one Sunday and have the Super Bowl the next Sunday, all while the NBA and NHL are continuing,” Garcetti said.

NASCAR will open the 2022 season inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in one of the biggest shakeups to its schedule in years.

Convincing its star drivers the trip to Nashville Superspeedway in 2021 is the spark of a motorsports rebirth in the area and not just another lazy ride on an intermediate concrete track. Theres little sense now debating which track is worthy of the renovations and safety upgrades necessary to hold Cup Series races at least through 2024. The TV numbers also showed there was a demand for NASCAR in Nashville. Nashville Superspeedway held Xfinity and Truck events, as well as IndyCar races, from 2001 until 2011. But the track has never held an elite Cup Series race.

This radical departure from Speedweeks past can be viewed as a harbinger for the remaining 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, which is expected to be released in April. NASCAR officials have suggested big swings with the schedule beginning next season as competitors move to the seventh generation ("Gen-7") of a NASCAR stock car. The recent popularity of NASCAR road-course racing among race fans was a key ingredient to changing the Clash format. "The interest in road-course racing across our fan base is something we are all paying attention to," Wile said. "We know how passionate our viewers are about both Daytona International Speedway and road-course racing," said Brad Zager, who is Fox Sports executive producer.

Its neat to be in a family sport and have such good supporters of the sport as well. Its been really good to see.Mom is Lesa France Kennedy, who is NASCAR vice chairperson and CEO of International Speedway Corp. Jim is Jim France, Lesas uncle, who is NASCAR chairman and CEO and ISC chairman. I believe in the future of NASCAR and the future of NASCAR is the foundation around the France family, NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton said. Jim France, now 74, has taken control of the sanctioning body, with major input from Lesa France Kennedy. He became the first driver to win a NASCAR race in Europe at Tours Speedway in France.

Preview: The proud mother of racer Ben Kennedy, both members of the "first family of NASCAR," tells correspondent Michelle Miller about her son's passion for competing.