By design or happenstance, the two track types that dominate the Chase also dominate the season as a whole. Flat tracks are represented New Hampshire, Martinsville, and Phoenix—and at less than a mile in length, they are all of the shorter variety.
Similarly-configured, 1.5-mile tracks have four or five races depending on how one classifies Homestead. Kansas and Charlotte are in round two with the Talladega lottery tossed in for giggles and to keep drivers at a heightened sense of anguish. Texas is wedged between two flat track races in round three—and of course, Chicagoland kicks off the Chase and round one.
(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Round one is the most eclectic of the rounds. With one similarly-configured, 1.5-mile track race, a short, flat track contest, and the high banks of Dover, drivers really have to show their range. One wishes NASCAR rearranged the remainder of the Chase to showcase the variety of racing and talent in each round—perhaps by replacing either Kansas or Charlotte with a road course race and Martinsville or Phoenix with a different track type—but we digress.
The weakness of the schedule actually plays into the hands of fantasy players. Back-to-back races on “cookie-cutter” courses in a few weeks and the slight separation of the short, flat track events means owners can concentrate on these two courses. Seven (or eight) of 10 races run to a type, leaving one to worry over Dover, Talladega, and perhaps Homestead—and since nothing is predictive for the restrictor-plate, superspeedway, in essence Dover stands alone as a track where handicapping occurs in a vacuum.
This week’s challenge is how to handicap Chicagoland, however. Even though more than a quarter of the races are contested on similarly-configured, 1.5-mile tracks, it has been nine weeks since one was last visited. At two miles in length, Michigan International Speedway provides some insight, but the last “cookie-cutter” race came at Kentucky Speedway and that was a bit of a wild card because of a recent repaving and reconfiguration project.
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