As Chicago’s street festivals struggle, Chicago Gourmet is swinging for the fences in 2025 and leaning into the city’s passion for sports. Organizers have announced a battery of events, including a dinner on the NASCAR Chicago Street Course with food from the chefs behind Bar Siena, Daisies, and Piccolo Sogno.

Chicago Gourmet takes place annually each summer, with many of the city’s best chefs and the country’s most popular wine producers gathering at the Grand Cru in Millennium Park. Over the years, the event series has transformed. COVID forced it to reduce its footprint at the park while focusing more on ancillary events such as the Hamburger Hop, which crowns the city’s best burger. Those tickets will go on sale in July.

This year, the fest’s theme, Step Up to the Plate, puts sports front and center, attempting to inject some excitement for fans. Lord knows, even with Pete-Crow Armstrong, that Chicago sports teams haven’t been inspiring lately.

While the Grand Cru will still take place on Saturday, September 27, at the Harris Bank Rooftop near Millennium Park, there are new events such as the aforementioned NASCAR dinner, which will take place on Wednesday, July 2, ahead of the third annual Chicago Street Race on Sunday, July 5. Diners will eat a five-course meal at the start/finish line in what organizers bill as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But what if it’s a success? We’ll see how 2025 goes. Tickets, $250, are already for sale online. The chef lineup consists of Fabio Viviani (Siena Tavern, Bar Siena, Bombobar), Joe Frillman and Leigh Omilinsky (Daisies), Tony Priolo (Piccolo Sogno), and Steve Maak (Levy Restaurants).

Then, on Friday, July 25, a lineup of chefs will be at the ballpark for Game Day Gourmet at the Crosstown Classic in concert with the Cubs’ and White Sox’s interleague games in July at Rate Field on the South Side. It’s a hot dog competition to see whose upscale spin on a wiener will reign supreme. Chefs will be tasked with zhuzhing special Duck Dogs, a duck fat-infused frank made famous by the Duck Inn. Participating chefs include Duck Inn’s own Kevin Hickey, Frontier and Ina Mae’s Package Goods’ Brian Jupiter, and Mirra’s Rishi Kumar and Zubair Mohajir. Win or lose, rain or shine, folks who shell out the $250 per ticket will get to sample the specialty sausages from a suite overlooking the game. Tickets are available for purchase online.

Finally, Jackie Robinson may not have strong ties to Chicago, but Major League Baseball’s first Black player is celebrated around the country. His No. 42 is retired by all teams, and all players wear the number during MLB’s annual Jackie Robinson Day. James Beard Award-winning chefs Erick Williams and Damarr Brown of Virtue will host a tribute dinner to Robinson on Wednesday, August 20. A cocktail reception will precede a three-course dinner. Marqueal Jordan & The Wachezaji will provide the music. Tickets cost $225 per person and are available online. Proceeds benefit Virtue Leadership Development and the IRA Educational Foundation.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 averaged 2.72 million viewers in Prime Video’s first NASCAR race.

The race, which was won by Ross Chastain, was the third-highest-watched NASCAR race this season not carried by Fox. FS1 averaged 2.89 million viewers for the March 16 race at Las Vegas and 2.84 million for Phoenix on March 9.

Fox Sports had the first 12 races of the season, with eight being carried on FS1. Last year’s Coca-Cola 600 on Fox averaged 3.2 million viewers.

According to Nielsen, the audience for Sunday night’s race peaked at 2.92 million viewers near the midway point.

Prime Video’s audience had an average age of 55.8 years, which is more than six years younger than the average median age of viewers watching NASCAR Cup Series races on linear TV (61.9).

The 67-minute postrace show averaged 1.04 million viewers and peaked at 1.26 million.

This was the first of five races that Prime Video will carry this season.

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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (WBTV) – A historic North Carolina racetrack appears to be up for sale, just weeks after NASCAR made its return.

A commercial real estate company has a listing for Rockingham Speedway, which returned to the NASCAR schedule for the first time in more than a decade on Easter weekend.

The one-mile oval has a rich history in NASCAR, with drivers like Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and many other racing legends having won there.

The listing does not show an asking price for the speedway but does have fairly comprehensive documents that highlight features of the overall property.

Perhaps what sticks out most from the documents is that over the past three years, more than $12 million has been poured into upgrading the facility’s infrastructure. Much of that came from the state government. The documents say another $12 million has been requested from the North Carolina General Assembly to get the property “Cup ready.”

Despite NASCAR having returned in April, the Cup Series’ more than two-decade absence has persisted. The Xfinity, Truck and ARCA series raced there that weekend, but not NASCAR’s top level. The last time that a Cup race was held at Rockingham was in 2004 when Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag.

The listing documents indicate hope that the track could see the Cup Series return in 2026 or 2027.

NASCAR has yet to unveil its 2026 series schedules, but Rockingham could very well find itself back on the Xfinity or Trucks circuit, especially after tickets for the Xfinity race sold out. Whether or not it could get a Cup date seems a bit more questionable.

Related: Winner disqualified in NASCAR’s return to historic North Carolina racetrack

Copyright 2025 WBTV. All rights reserved.

DIRECTV has made a pair of announcements regarding the remainder of the 2025 NASCAR season as well as the rest of the Sunday Night Soccer on MLS Season Pass schedule.

DIRECTV For Business Offers Complete NASCAR Season
This is the first NASCAR season under a new rights agreement that adds Amazon’s Prime Video and Turner Sports’ TNT and MAX to longtime providers Fox Corp’s FOX and FS1 and NBCUniversal’s NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.

DIRECTV and Prime Video recently entered into a new agreement to ensure that DIRECTV For Business’ more than 300,000 sports bars, restaurants, and other commercial venues receive Prime Video’s new five-race schedule, including this Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 from Nashville Superspeedway.

Prime Video’s upcoming NASCAR Cup Series coverage includes (All times ET).

• Sunday, June 1: NASCAR Cup Series Race at Nashville Superspeedway — 6:30 p.m.
• Sunday, June 8: Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway — 1:30 p.m.
• Sunday, June 15: NASCAR Cup Series Race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City — 2:00 p.m.
• Sunday, June 22: NASCAR Cup Series Race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania — 1:00 p.m.

After that, TNT and Max begin their first-ever five-race schedule starting with the Quaker State 400 (June 28).

DIRECTV for Business is the only commercial provider with the complete NASCAR season, thanks to this new Prime Video affiliation agreement and other ongoing rights with Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal. DIRECTV For Business commercial venues can now offer NASCAR fans the assurance of seeing every race despite the several new channels, streaming services, or other media outlets involved with the sport today.

Sunday Night Soccer on MLS Season Pass Is Now Free to All Sports Fans on DIRECTV
DIRECTV residential and commercial customers now have access to Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire on MLS Season Pass for free during the 2025 Major League Soccer season.

DIRECTV is a sponsor of Major League Soccer’s newest club, San Diego Football Club, and to celebrate the league’s 30th season, residential DIRECTV customers can subscribe to MLS Season Pass to watch every MLS game with no blackouts, in-depth coverage and analysis, exclusive content, and more for $14.99 a month for DIRECTV streaming customers and $99/season for satellite homes. And starting on June 8, satellite customers can subscribe for $69 for the remainder of the full season in the DIRECTV interface on channels 480 through 495, similar to the viewing experience for other league packages today.

This offering expands upon DIRECTV’s exclusive rights to provide MLS Season Pass to commercial establishments, which has been available to DIRECTV for BUSINESS’s vast network of more than 300,000 sports bars, restaurants, and more since the 2023 season.

Soccer fans can enjoy free access to Sunday Night Soccer marquee matchups, featuring some of the league’s most popular franchises. Tune in this Sunday, June 1 as Seattle Sounders FC host Minnesota United FC at 6:00pm ET.

All DIRECTV for BUSINESS customers automatically receive Sunday Night Soccer matches free without any additional activation.