NASCAR Chicago Street Race course begins to take shape as engineers set up barricades, grandstands

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Crews have been hard at work getting the makeshift track ready for Chicago's NASCAR Street Race next month.

The 2.2 mile track stretches from Jackson Drive to Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue to DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

Crews have been lowering 10,000-pound concrete barriers into place. About 2,000 of the barriers will line the NASCAR course throughout Grant Park, protecting drivers and fans sitting in grandstands that line the course.

"They've been tested and we are very confident they will do their job," NASCAR engineer Jeremy Casperson said.

The barriers are 12-feet long and three and a half feet high, with an eight-foot fence above them. There is a 15-foot buffer between the barriers and seating areas for fans.

Meanwhile, with a little more than a week to go before race weekend, the course is starting to take shape.

"It's going really well," said Shelley Phillips with Four Leaf Productions. "We're on track and feeling good about getting everything done."

The cars, drivers and crews will arrive in Chicago in a week. Until then, the only experience they'll have with this first-ever NASCAR street race will be on a simulator. They will get very little time to test out the course in-person.

"They essentially will have an hour of practice time to qualify and from there they will race," NASCAR Chicago Street Race President, Julie Giese, said.

The cars will be adjusted to take into account the potentially bumpy surface and multiple turns in either direction on the course. Not only has NASCAR never before tried a street race, but their engineers have never had to construct a course in such a short amount of time.

Inside the course footprint, in lower Hutchinson Field, the stage is set for music in the park before and after the race.

"Honestly it's fun to see it come together... come to life," Giese said.

The music stage will not only host four concerts on NASCAR weekend, but they'll be left up for the next five weeks to host concerts for Lollapalooza in the first week of August.