Vox Pop: The impact of NASCAR on students and community

What do you think about the NASCAR event that will be held in downtown Chicago July 1-2?

“I think it’s a pretty cool event that will bring a lot of attention to Chicago, which is pretty good. Of course street closures are not fun because our city’s infrastructure is bogged down as it is. But I think it could bring interest to Chicago especially because we’ve had waning tourism over the past few years.”

— Aditya Gupta, junior

“I’m very excited about it. Being a racing fan, it’s exciting to see NASCAR come so close to Chicago and being able to see the cars and the race. I’m looking forward to the event.”

— ​​Raza Zaidi, sophomore

I think it’s a really cool event, and I’m excited for it to be in Chicago just like less than a block away from where I live. And my dad will be flying a drone over the race course, so I’m excited to see the footage.”

— Lydia Frost, sophomore

“I don’t really have much of an opinion on the actual racing, but I live pretty close to where the races are gonna be held, and so that’s probably going to cause a lot of closure, so I’m not really excited about that.”

— Sofia Ansari, sophomore

“So it seems like it would be a lot of fun to go to it. I heard they’re closing down all the streets, so that seems like it might be annoying to get there. But other than that it seems like a lot of fun to watch the race.”

— Benjamin Jones, freshman

“I think it’s pretty cool that, like, it’s a pretty big event with cars and races would usually be held in, like, stadiums, but it’s in, like, the streets, which I feel, like, is kind of cool and, like, people can watch.”

— Ryan de Jong, freshman