Chicagoland IndyCar attendance plummets 67%

Maybe Chicagoland Speedway should reconsider its decision to install lights this season because the net impact has been the smallest crowds at what was once a very successful facility.

The crowd at Saturday night’s race was the smallest IndyCar crowd at Chicagoland Speedway as the late starting time, colder than normal temperatures in the mid-50s with windy conditions and a lack of promotion in the Chicagoland area all added up to an estimated at 20,000 spectators.

The same crowd attended Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and somehow that crowd was estimated at 40,000, which leads one to wonder who is actually doing the estimating. Although the suburban newspapers fully staffed this race, there was virtually no mention of the event on the Chicago television station newscasts making it an “invisible" event.

Also, spectators that wanted to attend either the Friday night NASCAR truck race or Saturday night’s IndyCar Series race were told they had to still buy the season-ticket package which included two NASCAR races that already took place in July.

When NASCAR held day races at Chicagoland, crowds were always at 80,000 capacity with the IndyCar Series race ranging from 60,000 the first few years to 30,000 last year.

For those fans that came out to see one of the best IndyCar races of the season, they were rewarded. In fact, they should have been rewarded by track officials on the way out for staying up late and fighting off the chill winds that made this feel like a Chicago Bears game at Soldier Field in October, not an IndyCar Series race in the normally hot month of August. Versus.com