Chicagoland not a cookie-cutter track
JOLIET, Ill. – The first thing I told pace car driver Brett Bodine when I got in the car for a spin around the speedway was that I thought Chicagoland Speedway was a cookie-cutter track and wondered if I was right or wrong.
"You're wrong," he said. "It's not a cookie-cutter."
Then he showed me why.
On TV, it's hard to see where Chicagoland is any different from Kansas, or even Texas, Las Vegas or Charlotte. The differences seem so subtle between the 1.5-mile tracks – certainly not pronounced like the difference between Homestead and Bristol.
But Bodine said lumping all the tracks together - even Chicagoland and Kansas – and calling them cookie-cutter tracks is a misnomer.
We did three laps around Chicagoland and Bodine was right – it is unique.
First of all, the backstretch is not a backstretch – it's a slight curve all the way around, so drivers are actually never going straight at Chicagoland.
Second, the trioval is much more pronounced than a place like Charlotte, and it's such a sharp turn that it almost acts as Turn 5. I found that part slightly bizarre.
Third, because of the harsh winters, the track is aging very quickly. Bodine said it will eventually be like the track in Atlanta with tire wear, but will offer drivers multiple grooves to use.
"All those things, with the 18 degrees of banking and the transitions, make this the perfect mile-and-a-half layout, in my mind," Bodine said.
Pit road was also surprisingly difficult to get onto without blowing the speed limit (45 mph here). In fact, Bodine missed it by about 20 mph, though I don't think he was really trying that hard.
Before I got out of the car, Bodine looked at me and said, in the manner of a good teacher: "You can't just call these tracks cookie-cutters. They're not all the same. That's like saying all 400-yard Par-Four holes are the same, or all 7,000-yard golf courses are the same. They're not."
I learned something today.
