Race details
Race 33 of 56 in the1956 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Cover of the program for the race
Date	July 21, 1956 (1956-07-21)
Location	Soldier Field,Chicago
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	0.5 miles (80 km)
Distance	200 laps, 100 mi (160.9 km)
Average speed	61.037 miles per hour (98.230 km/h)
Attendance	14,402
Pole position
Driver	Billy Myers	Bill Stroppe
Most laps led
Winner
No. 22	Fireball Roberts	DePaolo

On July 21, 1956, theNASCAR Grand National Series (today known as theNASCAR Cup Series) held the 33rd race of its season atSoldier Field inChicago. The race was won byFireball Roberts, and is today considered the only NASCAR Cup Series race to have been held at the venue.^{(note a)}

The NASCAR Grand National Series (today known as theNASCAR Cup Series) had first visited theChicagoland area in1954, when a reported crowd of 6,000 watched a race at the suburbanSanta Fe Speedway.^[1][2] For the 1956 season, NASCAR held races atSoldier Field in Chicago, including this Grand National Series race and twoConvertible Division races.^[1] Soldier Field had been regularly used as an auto racing venue since the 1940s.^[3]

This was the first NASCAR Grand National Series/NASCAR Cup Series race to be held in the city of Chicago.^[4] It is today regarded to have been the only NASCAR Cup Series race held at the Soldier Field.^{[5][6][7][8](note a)}

To accommodate NASCAR races in 1956, a new half-mile track layout was added to the stadium by adding new paved track to the north end of the stadium.^[9] The race was promoted byAndy Granatelli,^[10] at the time the key promoter of races at Soldier Field.^[11] Granatelli worked with NASCAR headBill France Sr. to schedule the race.^[10]

It had been thirteen days between the Soldier Field race and the previous NASCAR Grand National Series race atCalifornia State Fairgrounds.^[12] A race that had been scheduled to be held atOld Bridge Stadium inOld Bridge, New Jersey during the weekend in-between these two races was called-off due to rain.^[13]

Held July 21, 1956,^[4] the race used the stadium's half-mile short track configuration.^[14] At 200 laps, the race's length was 100 miles.^[15] Attendance at the race was 14,402.^[4] The race was contested by twenty-five drivers. While not an extraordinarily large number of drivers, some of the season's largest stars were among the competitors.^[3] Five competitors were futureNASCAR Hall of Famers. Thepole winner wasBilly Myers.^[16]

The race was won byFireball Roberts, who beatJim Paschal by one car-length.^[4] Pascal had been the lap leader until the 194th lap, when Roberts surpassed him.^[4] Roberts was driving a Ford forPete DePaolo's team. Third-place finisherRalph Moody was also driving for DePaolo. The fourth, fifth, and sixth-place finishers (respectively:Speedy Thompson,Frank Mundy, andBuck Baker) all were racing forCarl Kiekhaefer's team,^[10] which had dominated the 1956 Grand National Series season.^[17] Ten cars failed to finish the race.^[3] Five of these were sidelined due to brake issues, a regular problem on short tracks.^[16]

Legend:

• Finish: Finishing place of driver
• Start Pos.: Starting position of driver
• Car #: Car number
• Driver: Driver's name
• Sponsor: Sponsor of driver
• Owner/Team: Owner/team for which driver drove
• Car make: Make of car driven
• Laps: Laps completed
• Money: Earnings for race
• Status: If car was running at end of race, or otherwise the reason it was out of the race

The 1957 edition of Soldier Field's annual Chicago Park District Police Benevolent Association Gold Trophy Race (held on June 15, 1957) was sanctioned by NASCAR as a 50-lap short track race under the "NASCAR Grand National" banner.^[22] Despite the 1957 race being considered at the time it was held to have been a NASCAR Grand National Series event, it is not retrospectively considered to have been an official part of the1957 NASCAR Grand National Series.^[8] For reasons that are unclear, Soldier Field never held another NASCAR Cup Series race.^[3] NASCAR ceased holding any races at Soldier Field after 1957.^[23][24]

NASCARWinston Racing Series races were held in the Chicagoland area at the Santa Fe Speedway, which was ultimately demolished in 1995.^[1] NASCAR returned to the Chicagoland area for the2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, with theSears Craftsman 175 being held at theChicago Motor Speedway inCicero, Illinois.^{[citation needed]} The NASCAR Cup Series would not return to the Chicagoland area until 2002, when the2002 Tropicana 400 was held at theChicagoland Speedway inJoliet, Illinois.^[25] NASCAR would not return to the city proper again until 2023, when theXfinity Series heldThe Loop 110 and the NASCAR Cup Series held theGrant Park 220 at theChicago Street Course.^{[citation needed]}

• Motorsport at Soldier Field

^note a The 1957 edition of Soldier Field's annual Chicago Park District Police Benevolent Association Gold Trophy Race (held on June 15, 1957) was sanctioned by NASCAR as a 50-lap short track race under the "NASCAR Grand National" banner.^[22] It was won byBill Brown. However, while this 1957 race was considered to be a NASCAR Grand National Series event at the time it was held, by the 2010s it did not appear on NASCAR's retrospective lists of Grand National events that were held in the1957 NASCAR Grand National Series.^[8]

• Events at Soldier Field
• 1956 NASCAR Grand National Series
• NASCAR races in Illinois
• 1956 in sports in Illinois
• Sports competitions in Chicago
• July 1956 sports events in the United States

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