Blackhawks legend Chris Chelios can’t wait to experience NASCAR’s “different kind of energy”

Blackhawks legend Chris Chelios is one of the Grand Marshals for the Chicago Street Race, along with former Bears running back Matt Forte.

Chelios may not be the fastest driver, but he had a friend who loved the thrill of top speed: the Bulls legend Michael Jordan.

“I’ll never forget the days in the ’90s when MJ started getting his Ferrari kick and racing me down Madison Avenue at 120 miles an hour,” Chelios said.

Jordan picked up Chelios that night at a bar on Madison Street, and it wasn’t long before Jordan was reaching speeds of 120 mph.

“Luckily there was no traffic,” said Chelios. “It didn’t take long for it to reach 120. Trust me.”

Although he knows little about NASCAR, Chelios is excited about the atmosphere.

“I can’t wait for the race to start. There’s a lot of energy,” said Chelios. “It’s a different crowd and something I’m not familiar with.”

van Gisbergen’s right-foot brake

The drivers always seem to be amazed at how Shane van Gisbergen brakes with the right foot.

“He will be hard to beat,” driver Ryan Blaney said. “It’s nice that we all have something like a road race behind us.

“I think he’s probably the only one with a foot brace at the moment. I’d have to dedicate three to five years of my life to braking my right foot to achieve even half of what he can do.”

Van Gisbergen is used to Supercar racing, where the left foot is used for gear shifting and the right for braking. For NASCAR drivers, it’s the other way around.

Pressure on Wallace?

Bubba Wallace is under pressure, not only because he is currently ranked 15th in the NASCAR race standings, but also because McDonald’s, one of his major sponsors, is based in Chicago. Oh, and Michael Jordan is part owner of Wallace’s racing company, 23XI. Add all that together and all eyes will be on Wallace, who finished seventh at Nashville Superspeedway.

“Hopefully we’re one of those cars that you can’t write off,” Wallace said. “We haven’t had the best series of races in a long time. Last Sunday in Nashville, it was a nice finish and a good comeback, but that’s not how we want our race to go. We definitely want to do better in the middle and mid-section, but right now we just have to keep at it. We’re all still hungry.”

Wallace is as close to a must-win situation as any driver can get.

“I’m pretty tired of having to do it on points,” Wallace said. “(We) always seem to be right on the bubble, and it gets stressful. Every race you don’t want to do, it gets more and more stressful.”

“It would be nice to just plan and then you can just go ahead and try something out in the regular season.”