Still giddy from a dizzying stretch across the sea as the Garage 56 project reached its triumphant conclusion in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Jenson Button has his next venture in full focus — this weekend’s inaugural Chicago Street Race.
The accomplished 2009 Formula One champion, apparently dead set on making 2023 a “bucket list” kind of year, is slated to make his second career NASCAR Cup Series start on July 2 in the Grant Park 220 as part of the inaugural Chicago Street Race Weekend (5 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Button, 43, made his Cup Series debut earlier this year at Circuit of The Americas — an eye-opening experience for him, he strongly indicated — behind the wheel of the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford to a respectable 18th-place finish on a wild afternoon.
A 2009 Monaco Grand Prix winner en route to his F1 championship, Button has made 34 street-course starts in his 18-year career. Fresh off his Le Mans showing in his second shot at the famous French endurance race, Button now gets a chance to blend the back catalog of his racing resumé with his most recent foray behind the wheel of a stock car, albeit with a few wrinkles.
GARAGE 56: Full Le Mans recap, notes | Garage 56 completes mission
“To go back (to Le Mans) in a stock car was pretty awesome,” Button said last week in a video conference. “It was one of the best racing weekends, I would say, of my career. I think one because it was so relaxed, but two because it was just utterly nuts, you know, for us to be able to race a stock car at Le Mans against GTs and prototypes. It was a really, really special … I say weekend, but it felt like I was there for a month; I think it was 12 days. Such a reception from drivers, teams, from the fans. I think we put on an amazing show for NASCAR. And I think that we definitely have a lot more fans that will be tuning in, especially for Chicago.
“I think (Chicago will be) probably the first time I’ve raced in an actual city in a racing car. You know, Monaco is a ‘principality,’ but I wouldn’t classify it as a city. I think this will bring in definitely a different fan base. I know that true NASCAR fans might think it’s a bit of an unusual type of track, and why are we bothering but why not? I think it’s great that we’re willing to, you know, try something different. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It is one race on the calendar. I love that we’re trying new things, just like taking a stock car to Le Mans. Amazing. What a great opportunity. And I think it brought in a very different fan base, and I think this could do something very similar.”
While Chicago marks just the second NASCAR start for Button across any series, those 34 street-course starts under his belt should come in handy. There’s a limited handful of Cup Series drivers entered — AJ Allmendinger chief among them, of course — with any such starts, so it’ll be a weekend of learning for the entire garage, not just the jovial Brit.
Though he had yet to compile any sim data at the time of the video conference — an issue rectified just hours later — Button is uniquely positioned among the field to offer his insight on what teams and fans should expect to see this weekend in the Windy City.
“Yeah, I mean, every street course I’ve done in whatever I’ve raced in has been tight and twisty, and it is what it is. You deal with it,” he said. “You know, when you look at IndyCar — they raced in Detroit, which is the tightest track I’ve ever seen, but it was a great race. So I think that we can put on a great show. And that’s what this race is going to be about, really. It’s going to be a big learning curve for everyone. There’s no room for error. You can’t dive into corners, make a mistake, and then next lap ’round take it a little bit easier because you’ll be in the (garage) with a damaged car. So I think in terms of what the teams and drivers do on race weekend is going to be very different than normal. It’s going to really be building up to a good lap time. And come the race, yeah, we can’t drive like we do at COTA because none of us will get around Turn 1. So I think there needs to be a bit more respect for the circuit, as well as the other cars.”
LE MANS: Photos from France
“Respect” is an interesting word — and one that Button learned earlier this season means, in NASCAR and on road courses especially, a completely different thing than he’s used to in his past disciplines.
COTA was a rough-and-tumble kind of race, with no inches given at any point and gratuitous contact dished out in corner after corner like it was all-you-can-eat Texas barbecue. A dollop of heat exhaustion on the side probably didn’t help matters, either.
Not exactly the kind of wading-in-slowly Cup debut Button was perhaps expecting, but still — if it was a sink-or-swim exercise, clearly, he stayed afloat. And he’s back for more, perhaps even to his own surprise.
“I think for half the race COTA, I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this again.’ The other half of the race, I thought, ‘This is awesome. It’s just awesome,‘ in terms of the racing, the wheel action. Not giving an inch and I definitely enjoyed that,” said Button. ” … I feel that I had more wheel action on the first lap of the race in COTA than I do in a whole Grand Prix (in F1). So loads of emotions, positive and negative from COTA. Does it make me want to do more? Yeah, I mean, road courses, yes; ovals I would love to try one day, but you know, it’s another world. These guys have driven ovals since they were five, six years old. So why would I be good? I don’t know. It’s a possibility, but it’s a lot of work. And it’s already enough getting used to driving such a big car for me, and style of racing is a big step as well. So maybe one day, but you know, I’m very happy and very lucky to be doing the three races I’m doing this year and looking forward to Chicago and then, obviously, Indy a few weeks after.
“I think everyone will tone it down a little bit. I watched Sonoma. And it definitely shows that it’s circuit-dependent. You know, COTA is always going to be a tricky one because you head up to Turn 1, and it’s so wide on the entry, and then it’s very narrow. And that whole section, you can stay side-by-side all the way down to Turn 10. Whereas at Sonoma, it was a very different type of race. It was more of a, you know, it felt more of what I’m used to when I watched the race at Sonoma. And I think Chicago will be something similar because we all know that you can’t just run wide and come back on. I do think that the race will be a little bit calmer in Chicago.”
Calmer, sure, but a one-of-a-kind spectacle nonetheless, and one Button is itching to get to.