NASCAR WCUP: Kenseth previews racing action at Chicogoland
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 10, 2001
The NASCAR Winston Cup Series will be making its debut at the new Chicagoland Speedway this weekend for the inaugural Tropicana 400. Ford Racing spoke to a few drivers and got their thoughts on one of the two newest tracks on the circuit.
MATT KENSETH --17-- DEWALT Power Tools Taurus -- YOU TESTED AT CHICAGO. WHAT IS IT LIKE? "It's pretty cool. It's kind of shaped like Las Vegas when you look at it, except for the backstretch. I'm not sure what happened, but the backstretch isn't straight. It drives a lot like Texas. It's real, real fast and you're not hardly out of the gas at all, but the corners remind me a lot of Texas."
WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAY THE BACKSTRETCH ISN'T STRAIGHT? "The front straightaway is round like Las Vegas, but the back straightaway is hard to explain. It's just not straight. You drive off there and the wall kind of goes back and forth. It's not straight, but you don't have to turn the wheel. It's kind of weird looking, but you get used to it after a few laps."
SOME DRIVERS ARE CONCERNED ABOUT IT POSSIBLY BEING A SINGLE LANE LAYOUT. WHAT DO YOU THINK? "I think the layout is fine. It's plenty wide and there's gonna be room to pass, but, right now, I think the greatest race of the year is Atlanta. I think you can run right from the bottom all the way to the top, but five years ago you would have said it was the worst race because you could run right around the bottom with the new pavement. That's the same thing you're gonna have at Chicago. You're gonna be on the bottom because the pavement has a ton of grip and, like I said, you're barely out of the gas around the bottom so I don't know how you would ever pass somebody on the outside right now. It's gonna be a lot like that, but I think when you have a couple of good Chicago winters on it and we run some races on it, I'm sure the pavement will start wearing on the bottom and the groove will start moving up."
BEING A MIDWESTERN GUY YOURSELF. DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD EVER RACE ON A TRACK LIKE THIS IN THE CHICAGO AREA? "Well, I never thought it would be possible I would be racing in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. But it's gonna be cool to have a race track there. It's only about two-and-a-half hours away from where I grew up and I know a lot of friends and family are coming down to watch the race. A lot of them have never seen a Winston Cup race live, so that's real exciting. Whenever you can get new race fans from different areas to come out and see us race in person, that's always exciting."
DID YOU EVER RACE IN THAT AREA COMING UP THROUGH THE RANKS? "Yeah, I've raced a little track called Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois. That's not far from there and that's probably the closest one. That was an old fairgrounds and they had a track that I ran there five or six times, so I'm looking forward to going back there."
MARK MARTIN --6-- Pfizer Taurus -- THE EARLY SCOUTING REPORT ON THIS TRACK IS IT'S FAST. "Yeah. Different regions tend to have different compounds of asphalt. Some of it is really, really good. The really, really good stuff is real fast, real easy on tire wear. It makes a lot of heat in the tires, so you have to have a durable tire from that respect, but you don't have any wear in the tires or any dropoff in the speeds. That's incredible. That's really good asphalt. But that kind takes the longest to get rubbered in a wide groove. You get one groove. What I'm describing to you is Atlanta. Nobody wanted to pass. No one wanted to get on the outside. It was real fast and the tires lasted forever as long as they didn't self destruct. That's kind of what this paving job is like. It's smooth. There's tons of grip. Wit this being the first year there it's gonna be a little bit of a tense race because the outer groove is gonna be slow to come in. It probably will never be fantastic the first year there, but then you put a Chicago winter on it and you put more races on it and it will get to be really good. Atlanta is a place that is really cool to race on now, but we weren't so sure the first time we went. So, this is one of those races where we've got to go and bide our time and let the surface mature. It's gonna take a while for the surface and the rubber and the groove to mature completely, but it's not a treacherous race track to drive. It's not a race track you're going to see a lot of accidents on and I think it'll be good because this is a facility we certainly need to be racing at. This is a great addition to what we do."
BUT YOU THINK THIS FIRST RACE WILL BE TENSE. "Yeah, it's gonna be pretty tense the first time there. The track is gonna mature over a period of time, but we were pretty tense at Atlanta the first time. I like to reflect on that because I think we all like going to Atlanta, and I think we put on great races and feel pretty comfortable there now, but the first time was a little tense. That was with good pavement, the best kind that lasts the longest and the tires last the longest. I give the people at Chicago high marks for a relatively smooth track and for getting some really good pavement down. Now we have to go there and work with it and give it time to mature and it will be a great racing facility."
RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus -- "We didn't test at Chicago, so I'm looking at the whole first day as just sort of getting to know the place. Don't do anything crazy, don't do anything stupid. Everyone says it's a pretty quick track to adapt to and I'm glad NASCAR has given us a full day to work out things and test things. Most of the time when we go to the race track we're working on setups or we're working on handling, but I know when I get to Chicago I'm gonna be working on me -- trying to get myself calmed down and get adjusted so I'm comfortable with the race track. We probably won't make any spring changes or any shock changes to the car until at least the first half of that first session. I'm going to spend time getting familiar with the race track. We might throw a few things at it chassis-wise, but I mainly want to get myself adjusted. I don't want to look at putting that big, fast speed up right away because if we get to racing that speed chart -- and you've got guys who have tested there -- I could catch myself making a mistake. We don't need to bend the race car up, so, basically, you don't want to push the limits until you're comfortable with the race track."
WHAT ABOUT RACING AT A PLACE FOR THE FIRST TIME? "The adrenaline is flying. It's a new race track and a strange environment. You know, a lot of these race tracks I could drive blind-folded in my sleep because you've been around them so many times. But I'd say, having been around the circuit for quite a few years, I'm always a little apprehensive going somewhere new. I guess you don't want to teach and old dog new tricks and that's pretty much what we have to do. Generally, I've done very well at inaugural race tracks. I've won at a few inaugural race tracks (including Sears Point in 1989), but if you go in there you can actually put a lot of undue pressure on yourself going to a new race track. I like to go in there real loose and kind of laid back. There's no pressure because qualifying isn't on the first day and I like to just kind of build the tempo as you go along."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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