|| *Comments on Soldier Field:* View the most recent comment <#7> | Post a comment <#post> 1. RaceFanX posted: 02.23.2010 - 2:16 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Yes folks this is THE Solider Field, home of the NFL's Chicago Bears. Up until about the 1970s there was a race track inside the stadium 2. Cooper posted: 03.27.2010 - 4:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1/2 Mile Asphalt Track. The track wrapped around the football field. The track was abandoned in 1970 after people protested financing of the racetrack. Fireball Roberts won the single Grand National Race in 1956. 3. Chriswo posted: 07.22.2015 - 10:17 am Rate this comment: (2) (1) The track was torn out in 1970 following protests by hippies who objected to the city financing auto racing 4. Anonymous posted: 12.02.2017 - 11:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) If they only hosted four big races in the past 20 years, I probably would protest too. 5. RaceFanX posted: 10.18.2018 - 3:47 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) @4 The track here was mainly for weekly local races and while racing here dated back to the mid-1930 the heyday of auto racing at Solider Field was in the 1950s. They took a year off in 1959 in connection with Soldier Field's use for track and field events for that year's Pan-American Games and after that they lost the momentum and fanbase they had built up before. The last race was held in 1968, Chi-Town's own USAC Stock Car star Sal Tovella won it, with the track being removed in 1970 in preparation for the Chicago Bears moving in, the Bears had been playing at Wrigley Field from their inaugural season in 1921 until then. Solider Field as it was in this era no longer exists, the whole stadium, minus its exterior walls, was torn down and rebuilt during a 2002 modernization. The result is a larger but, um, curiously designed stadium. 6. Andy U posted: 12.12.2018 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How do you put a .5 mile around a football field? https://autoweek.com/article/nascar/look-back-soldier-field-chicago-once-hosted-nascar-cup-race Looking at that photo, it seem s like the football field did not take up the whold field surface. It was probably about a .25 mile track in teh pic but you can see jersey barriers blocking off the long track. Bigtime banking visible in the article. Nascar ran one GN event but 3 Convertible Series events. Here you can see the old Soldier field which held the race and the new modernized stadium. Looks like they just cut off the north half. To track the old race track you would go around the field, head out the north end, go out to the fenced walkway and back in to the field 7. A posted: 06.22.2019 - 11:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In the years the Bears played at the "old" Soldier Field, circa 1971-2001, the stadium was renovated with a much smaller seating capacity and newer stands which cut off about 1/4 of the stadium. If you see a view from this era you can tell how the stadium was much bigger and would have had room for a decent sized race track. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: