Man, talk about your loss leaders.

How badly did NASCAR want to race in downtown Chicago?

Theoretically, it became quite an obsession over the past couple of years as the twin pillars of a new scheduling philosophy — “bold and innovative,” they promised — began taking real shape: Dirt at Bristol and the Clash in L.A. were the first two products.

Both in theory and philosophically, next July’s Chicago debut — Michigan Avenue, Lake Shore Drive, Grant Park, Soldier Field, Lake Michigan, Navy Pier, and on and on — seems beyond anything Big Bill France could’ve imagined nearly 75 years ago when he first introduced NASCAR as a workable concept.

And he had quite an imagination.

Logistically and financially, however, is where they’ll have to deal with the devil in the details.

You can’t begin to estimate the millions of dollars it’s going to cost NASCAR to stage this splashy race weekend over the next three years.

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No, literally, you can’t. The Chicago mayor — Lori Lightfoot — said as much during Tuesday’s announcement.

"We'll be working out the details on this with NASCAR,” she told attending media. “Once we have those specifics, we'll be happy to share them with you.”

In any major metropolitan area — particularly one with Chicago’s reputation, we assume — there’s bound to be an endless stream of constituencies wanting a cut of the action.

Building the 2.2-mile race course to modern specs is a monumental task on its own, but what comes next will also be quite pricey, when NASCAR’s in-box starts filling with invoices from a wide range of logistics providers.

And then there are all the others who will cooperate in more passive ways. As the press releases were spread about and the stage set for Tuesday’s announcement, Chicago aldermen representing the central business district suggested they were left out of the process.

Affected commuters and downtown workers — and shopkeepers, of course — will raise the usual hell, but City Hall remains the heavyweight champ.

No, this will not be cheap, this will not be easy, and it will not come without detractors.

But it will seemingly be worth it. NASCAR isn’t lacking for accountants and marketing mavens. Neither is NBC, which as host for the season’s second half will now get its own shiny new lure to attract previously hesitant viewers — Fox has the L.A. Coliseum.

Ben Kennedy, again, is the man out front for this big occasion. Officially, Ben’s title is “Senior Vice President, Racing Development and Strategy.” Unofficially, the 30-year-old is NASCAR’s future, the sole fourth-generation France family member among the leadership roster.

But he has also become a very big part of NASCAR’s here-and-now. Chicago and L.A., we’re told, were both his concepts and his delivery. Symbolically as well as realistically, Ben Kennedy is the natural fit for this role because NASCAR’s future depends on attracting a wider, younger fan base — the longtime core, you have surely noticed, isn’t getting any younger.

In certain instances, such as this, you have to spend big on the front end to hopefully see a payoff. The L.A. Coliseum makeover was practically a Lego project compared to what’s coming in Chicago, and Kennedy seems aware.

“This is going to be a significant investment to build up the infrastructure and develop a temporary course here. For us, that wasn’t really a huge part of our calculation,” he told Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass Tuesday in Chicago. “More so for us, it's being in a downtown location like this, a major market like Chicago . . . and again, doing something for the very first time.”

Also, not to be overlooked, NASCAR's companion race next July will come from its sports-car entity, IMSA. This is no small thing for those folks.

The bottom line these days for many sports-entertainment vehicles is using brand awareness to create brand loyalty, which pays off in a variety of ways, but most notably in TV viewership numbers. And those numbers, every several years, result in network contracts containing 10 figures and three commas.

Creating the proverbial buzz with something like a Chicago street race fits within every modern marketing strategy for any organization that cares about its growth potential.

Sixty-some years ago, Kennedy’s great-grandfather built his dream speedway on a wing and a prayer, cobbling together funding where he could find it in order to erect a mammoth race track from the westside Daytona Beach muck. There were also rattlesnakes. Lots of 'em.

From big expenses and angry snakes to urban infrastructure and metropolitan bureaucracy. Yep, the more things change . . .

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR to downtown Chicago? An innovative but very pricey play