Night Fever
This weekend is my annual "home" game of the NASCAR season, if you want to call Chicagoland Speedway a home race for me. I live in the Chicago area, but the speedway is a bit far from the actual city - about a 60 mile one-way trip.

But at least I can sleep in my own bed every night this weekend, albeit for a few hours.

And we have a couple of new wrinkles in the mix at Chicagoland this year - the debut of the new Sprint Cup car and of course lights.

For the first time since NASCAR has competed at the 1.5-mile track, we'll do it under the lights with both the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series Friday and Saturday nights.

For fans, it's a great move. Getting out of the hot July sun for the relief of the cool summer evening should be a welcome relief for all. And of course the beauty of big league stock cars racing under the lights is unmatched.

For media, it's not the best scenario with the late nights ahead and for my newspaper and television reporter friends who will be sweating out those deadlines that come pretty quickly when you cover a prime time race.

I also feel for the short tracks around the country, which once again will be forced with going up against NASCAR in prime time on the two biggest nights of local track racing.

But overall this year's Chicago visit has a new feel to it - hopefully the racing will live up to the excitement.

And even better, we have the next weekend off.
Posted: 7/9/2008 8:50:58 AM
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