NASCAR’s history will forever be tied to moonshiners and the race to evade the revenuers; but decades before the first chase to catch a moonshiner, the “windy city” of Chicago hosted the first automobile race.

It was a cold Thanksgiving morning on November 28, 1895 when six drivers showed up with a two cylinder 1.75 horsepower car with no doors or safety features and gave birth to auto racing.

Only two of the six starters actually finished the race but an era was born and on July 1 – 128 years later – NASCAR returns to the streets of Chicago for another historic race when the Xfinity and Cup Series run the first ever street course race.

The original race in 1895 was from Chicago to nearby Evanston; and as luck would have it, the 2.2 mile course set for this weekend includes a small piece of the original race course.

In 1895 the cars ran only a little faster than a walking pace when they raced down Michigan Avenue; but this weekend when the drivers take to Michigan Avenue, they will be topping 100 miles per hour.  The race course covers some of the most iconic streets in views in Chicago but the drivers will have little chance to take in the views as they make 100 laps around the course.

While the NASCAR drivers will not have to deal with the cold and snow this weekend, they may have to deal with smoke filled skies from fires in Canada.

When the first street course race in NASCAR history was announced, there was a great deal of speculation as to why NASCAR would run such a race, but the city has a history…a racing history.

And as Paul Harvey used to say, “now you know the rest of the story.”