Well, folks, it’s almost time to roll out the red carpet — scratch that, checkered carpet — for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.

Isn’t it grand? This weekend, dozens of good ol’ internal combustion chariots will roar through our streets, their finely tuned engines belching plumes of hydrocarbons like there’s no tomorrow.

Folks, Chicago’s air quality this week is already making the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 seem like a fondly remembered barbecue. The smoke might have been thick back then, but at least it wasn’t laced with enough pollutants to choke a horse.

And yet, Mayor Brandon Johnson, no stranger to stepping in front of a camera and spouting the latest buzzwords about climate action and environmental protection, seems to think this is all dandy.

“We must take drastic action to mitigate these threats and ensure that every Chicagoan in every neighborhood has the resources and protection they need to thrive,” he said the other day about our malodorous Canadian air.

A powerful statement, wouldn’t you say? I nearly teared up at the sincerity.

I couldn’t help but notice that the mayor’s definition of “drastic action” doesn’t seem to extend to doing anything drastic like restricting vehicle use during our current eco-crisis or nixing the NASCAR shindig.

Here we have our city’s highest official lecturing us about the environment while hosting an event that’ll contribute more to the air pollution problem in a single afternoon than my dear old Aunt Edna’s ’79 Pinto ever could.

Sure, I get it. NASCAR brings in the bucks. The tourist dollars flow. But at what cost? We’ve got kids in this city whose lungs have never known clean air — inside or outside — and we’re inviting in a pack of revved-up gas guzzlers.

So, Mr. Mayor, if your progressive rhetoric means anything, why not take a real stand?

Cancel the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.