How Chicago's historic orchestra hall helps NASCAR tackle a street-race problem

New York Times

a day ago

CHICAGO — The Symphony Center is one of Chicago's oldest structures, but the history inside isn't why NASCAR teams have descended on a building that first opened in 1904. The reason is that, when you go up to the ninth floor and walk out onto the east-facing balcony, you get a picturesque view of Millennium Park to your left, Lake Michigan straight ahead and Grant Park to your right.
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From this lookout on the Symphony Center's highest floor, NASCAR teams get an important view during the Chicago race weekend. During on-track sessions for both the Cup and Xfinity Series, teams position spotters here to help their drivers navigate the temporary street circuit that encompasses 2.2 miles and 12 turns around Grant Park.
'It's definitely quite the view from up here,' said Travis Geisler, alternative spotter for Team Penske driver Joey Logano.
Geisler, Penske's competition director, doesn't normally spot for Logano, only stepping into that role whenever NASCAR races on a road course. The spotter's job requires being an additional set of eyes for a driver, helping them through the potential safety and competitive facets they must navigate, while also monitoring every other driver. An already challenging role is made more difficult when NASCAR ventures away from its traditional oval tracks to road courses, like it will this weekend in downtown Chicago. For the third consecutive year, NASCAR is racing on the Windy City's streets.
On circuits like Chicago, a spotter's visibility is often obscured, with several obstacles in the way and communication with their driver limited. And that's how a group of spotters find themselves atop a building that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — regarded as one of the United States' 'Big Five' orchestras — calls home. It's an ideal place to view a section of the track.
'You are higher up, so you can see more, even though some of the braking zone into (Turn) 11 is blocked by the tree, you can at least see when somebody's setting it up and can give (a driver) a heads-up,' said Hayden Reeves, primary spotter for Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones, of the Symphony Center location. 'From here, you can pick them up a little sooner.'
At most ovals, teams employ just a single spotter, stationed usually at the track's highest point — typically on top of the scoring tower on the frontstretch. On a road course, with a more complex layout, teams usually bring in at least two additional spotters, scattered throughout the circuit to offer guidance at areas where the main spotter cannot get a proper visual.
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For Chicago, teams generally place their primary spotter on a stand along the main straightaway in the frontstretch. Additional spotters, many of whom study the vernacular of the primary spotter to make it easier for the driver to understand, are in the designated locations between Turns 3 and 4 — where they stand atop double-decker buses parked outside the circuit — and at the Symphony Center.
Spotters along the straightaway are responsible for picking up the cars exiting Turn 12 and entering Turn 1, a primary passing zone, then coming into Turn 6, another passing zone. They also handle restarts, which are often frantic. Spotters on the buses handle the cars as they come down the high-speed backstretch into Turn 3, through Turn 4 and into Turn 5. Spotters at the Symphony Center pick up their driver as they exit Turn 8 and enter a quick succession of three turns, including Turn 11, a tricky 90-degree bend that has been the site of many pile-ups.
'Most of the corners are 90-degree corners and blind, and you can't see around them,' said Kaulig Racing driver AJ Allmendinger. 'And as we've seen a couple of times, you start stacking cars in there, if the spotter is slow to get to it or can't see it, we all kind of stack it in there because you just don't see the cars wrecked.'
The use of multiple spotters on road courses — teams may use more than three and place them where needed — requires everyone to adjust their operations. T.J. Bell, spotter for 23XI Racing's Corey Heim, described it as a 'game of telephone' where not everyone has direct communication with everyone at all times.
On an oval, a driver's lone spotter informs them of everything — choosing the right lane on a restart, if another driver is to the inside or outside of them, cautions, what's happening on pit road, or any number of other things. On road courses, however, the regular spotter is not necessarily the primary voice, as some duties are left to those with a better sightline.
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The setup means the regular spotter has to accept not being able to talk to their driver as often as normal and must adapt to handing off to the alternative spotters, then remaining silent.
'Well, I'm an egomaniac. I don't like to share my job with anybody,' said Freddie Kraft, the spotter for 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace. 'I want to be in control of everything.'
This year, track officials have relocated the primary spotter stand from above pit road to across from it, a move made due to the removal of a hospitality area that had been there for the past two years. While spotters should now have a straight-on viewpoint of pit road itself, some have expressed trepidation about whether they'll be able to clearly see cars exiting Turn 12 and entering Turn 1, or picking up their driver going into Turn 6 due to trees that line the course. Track officials responded to the concerns by adding video boards to assist.
Limited visibility for spotters is not unique to Chicago, with similar concerns arising in the past few years at other tracks, including some ovals. Last month at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a permanent road course in Mexico City where NASCAR raced for the first time in nearly 20 years, some of the initial designated spotter locations weren't ideal. Spotters had difficulty seeing cars going into Turn 1, a key section of the 2.49-mile, 15-turn course, due to the stand being too low to the ground. After consultation with NASCAR, spotters were allowed to relocate to areas they saw as a better fit, though some still said they lacked sufficient visibility.
'Spotters into Turn 1 of Mexico. Do you know where they were standing? You can't see anything,' Wallace said. 'And so if we want to talk about safety and all this stuff, either say we're not racing with spotters, or get them in a position and make sure the area is safe for them to operate in to give us the safety and the protocols that we need.'
Wallace's frustration stems from how much drivers rely on spotters. That importance is magnified on some tracks, particularly a street course that offers little margin for error due to the concrete walls that closely surround the track.
But because of the vast layout of the Chicago course, or nearly any road course, there are areas where spotters can't see their cars. There can also be radio issues due to interference from nearby buildings. The combination of factors leaves drivers momentarily on their own, a little blind to what's around them.
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'You just have to pick it up on the stuff that you may get relaxed on, stuff like relying on your ears a lot,' Logano said. 'When you get your spotter going and all that, you listen to him to make your decisions, and now you have to take a little bit of focus off the road and look at the mirror.'
It's all part of the challenge of trying to race on a road course, both for those behind the wheel and those watching from above trying to keep a close eye on the action.
'Chicago is a tough one with a lot of blind spots,' Kraft said. 'You would probably need five or six guys to do it effectively. It's basically just a positioning thing. You see Turn 4 spotters are standing on top of a damn tour bus. Like, we got someone on Symphony (Center) on the balcony. Some guys are in hotel rooms trying to watch Turn 6. It's very challenging at times. It's hard.'
(Top photo of cars going through Turn 11, with Symphony Center in the background, during last year's Chicago Street Race: Joseph Weiser / Icon Sportswire)