In a press conference held the Monday after this yearâs NASCAR Street Race weekend in July, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters the department was able to âscale downâ its security plan and âhad significantly less officersâ working this yearâs event than last yearâs.
Overtime records obtained by the Weekly via a public records request donât reflect that, however. They show that nearly 200 more officers earned overtime for this yearâs race than in 2023. A Chicago Police Department (CPD) spokesperson did not specifically answer the Weeklyâs question about Snellingâs comments.
The records, which include the names of the officers, the dates they worked, overtime hours credited, and the reasons they were working, show that 1,518 officers earned overtime for the 2024 NASCAR Street Race. Thatâs 185 more than the 1,333 officers who earned overtime for last yearâs race. The vast majority of the overtime, or 68.8 percent, was for involuntarily working a regular day off.
The total overtime associated with NASCAR this year was nearly the same: 29,410 hours in 2024, compared to 29,797 hours in 2023. But after analyzing publicly available salary data and the overtime data, the Weekly estimated that this yearâs NASCAR overtime cost will still be slightly higher.Â
Last year, a preliminary analysis by the Weekly estimated that NASCAR cost the City at least $1.1 million in police overtime. That estimate only included overtime data that was available when the request was filed, which was immediately after the race weekend. The Tribune later reported that CPD paid out $1.4 million in NASCAR overtime in 2023.
The Weeklyâs analysis of 2024 overtime and salary data estimated that officers earned $1.6 million in overtime associated with this yearâs race. Mayor Brandon Johnson secured a promise that NASCAR would pay an additional $2 million to cover the cost to the City this year. Whether that will be enoughâand whether Johnson will stick with hosting the race, which has failed to hit ticket sales goals two years runningâremains to be seen.
Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a three-year contract with NASCAR in 2022. Lightfoot lost her reelection bid, and the stock-car races have thus far all taken place on Johnsonâs watch. The deal Lightfoot inked was criticized by City Council members who said the $500,000 permit fee was too low. (The City also got $2 per ticket sold and 15 percent of commissions in 2023). An economic impact report commissioned by the Cityâs tourism agency estimated that the race generated $109 million for the City and local businesses last year. However, the report did not include revenue lost to museums and Loop businesses, or the costs of police overtime and street remediation.
Six officers who were listed as getting overtime for the 2024 NASCAR weekend are not included in the Cityâs database of current employees. A police spokesperson said two of those officers had retired since July, but was unable to explain the discrepancy around the other four.
The timesheets also show that eighty-one Chicago police officers earned overtime for working in Milwaukee, WI, ahead of and during the Republican National Convention in July. A Weekly analysis estimated the cost of that overtime to be $281,000. And 450 officers earned overtime for a Democratic National Convention training exercise in June, at an estimated cost of $391,000.
A police spokesperson said federal grants administered through the Illinois Law Enforcement Alert System (ILEAS), an interagency resource-sharing organization, will cover the cost of the overtime accrued in Milwaukee. Last week, The TRiiBE reported that a document obtained from the Office of Budget Management offered some details on how such funds will be distributed.
Jim Daley is the Weeklyâs investigations editor.
