Chicago: What’s old is new — very new — again for NASCAR

Will Chicago be NASCAR’s kind of town?

It was Frank Sinatra’s. His 1964 tune — “My Kind of Town” — underlined Chicago’s long pursuit of New York City in the race to be America’s Big City. Chicago always would be the runnerup in that chase, having gained the nickname the Windy City not because of its weather but because of its eternal hometown boosterism.

Now NASCAR steps in. Or drives in.

For long-time fans who might consider Rockingham or North Wilkesboro or Darlington more their kind of town, the Tuesday announcement that NASCAR will bring its Cup Series to the streets of Chicago next summer is the latest confirmation that the sport is much more concerned with its future posture than some of its past wanderings across American backroads. There likely always will be a Daytona 500 and a throwback race at Darlington and fenders (and tempers) flaring at places like Bristol and Martinsville, but there is little doubt that NASCAR’s future is on a track more like the Jetsons than the Flintstones.

Years of stubborn inertia have given way to somewhat risky experimentation, and next year’s Chicago event — if it comes off as planned — is the latest example. It follows NASCAR’s successful Clash pre-season race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February, but this is a much bolder enterprise, tinged with a certain amount of bravado.

However, it won’t be NASCAR’s first brush with deep-dish pizza, the Cubs, the Bears and internationally recognized architecture along both sides of the Chicago River.

What now is the NASCAR Cup Series raced inside Soldier Field in Chicago July 21, 1956 on an almost-half-mile track wrapped around the stadium’s football field. Although that race, won by rising star Fireball Roberts, was the only Cup