This weekend’s Sprint race at Chicagoland Speedway was expected to be a continuation from last year’s racing style. The track had finally developed some two-wide racing, and was expected to give the fans just that throughout this year’s race weekend.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. Both the Nationwide and Cup series races proved that this speedway is not yet ready to be known for great, side-by-side action. To its credit, it provided a good amount of beating and banging with the incorporation of the double-file restarts. For the first few green flag laps, the drivers would furnish a good amount of excitement.
Eventually, the inevitable would happen. The field would become slowly spread out to the point that it was a follow the leader style of race. The interval between the leader and second place was spread to almost six seconds at times. All of the cautions in the Nationwide race were debris, and up until we were nearing the final 50 laps of the 267-lap event, the Cup race was the same. The cars were never really close enough to have contact with each other to cause a wreck.
I had to make that point to make this one. We are fresh off of a weekend where many critics thought that the racing was way too close, and way too dangerous. Let me ask you this: Is this style of racing what you were after?
Immediately after a week of nose to tail, side-by-side, passing situation racing that restrictor plates provide, we have a race where they were not even close to a pass unless they were in a restart situation. This should mean that the critics from last week will be quiet this week and say nothing about the lack of excitement this one contained. Something tells me that will not be the case.
To those people that seem to think there is a solution to Daytona and Talladega that sits somewhere between Daytona’s style of racing and Chicagoland’s, I would ask you to tell me what it is. Doing anything to “fix” restrictor plate racing’s “problem” would result in the show that we were treated to last night.
Are they different tracks? Yes. But they share the tri-oval characteristic that provides a longer front stretch where the speeds become high, and long sweeping turns where they can maintain that high speed. I would guarantee that if we were allowed for one race to remove the plates, and the cars actually could stay on the track at 230-plus miles per hour, this is the show that we would see.
Some people consider a spread out event to be racing. It provides a standard that requires that the best car with the best engine wins. Unfortunately, races such as the one in Joliet, Ill., Saturday night do not appeal by and large to the fans.
Today’s society was made by Hollywood where the underdog wins and does so in dramatic fashion. It isn’t even close to the story we were treated to last night. Daytona and Talladega provide this action on a consistent basis, and it’s all thanks to the restrictor plate.
Ladies and Gentleman, pick your poison.
