Chicago NASCAR 2023 street race has downtown hotels hoping to fill up

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The NASCAR Chicago street race will take over the area around Grant Park the first weekend July, and Chicago's hospitality industry is hoping for a big boost.

Each day of the event, which is being held July 1 and 2, is expected to bring around 50,000 people downtown, packing the grandstands around the race route and also packing downtown hotel rooms.

NASCAR CHICAGO GUIDE: See the Chicago NASCAR street race course, plus street closures and parking restrictions

"There's no way to track in real time, but we're hearing anecdotally from properties that, especially along the race route, there's a lot of sellouts," said Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association.

On the same weekend, a major girls' volleyball tournament is being held at McCormick Place, which is expected to bring in tens of thousands of additional visitors.

Coming on the heels of the sellout weekend from the Taylor Swift concerts, when hotels had a record-breaking weekend, the NASCAR weekend bodes well for an industry still recovering from the economic struggles of the past several years.

"So if we continue that momentum, it's going to be a really good summer for Chicago hotels," said Jacobson.

There are, of course, concerns about the impact the course closures will have on those living downtown or trying to get around.

"So certainly very concerned about the traffic inconveniences we're going to face between June 28 And July 5, that's especially going to be just brutal downtown with that portion of Lakeshore drive downtown closed as well. So that is that is a serious concern to my residents," said 34th Ward Ald. Bill Conway.

NASCAR's first-ever street race is a chance to expand its fan base, but because of the global reach it's also an opportunity for Chicago to promote itself.

"It's really great to have these people coming to our city. We can throw them a big party, a big event, and really showcase all the good things that we know about Chicago as residents and showcase it to the people across our country," said Lynn Osmond, president and CEO of Choose Chicago.

Despite the concerns about the impact of the race, the head of the hotel industry hopes that after it's over people might decide it wasn't really that bad, and that the benefits outweighed the inconveniences.