Drivers wondering what to expect with 'new' Chicago

Chicago is the home of the Blues Brothers, great pizza, the country's tallest building and one of sports' all-time futility streaks (that is, the Cubs' century-long drought since their last World Series title). It's also the home of Chicagoland Speedway -- one of the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile ovals that shares many common characteristics with several other speedways on the Sprint Cup Series schedule.

But all things the same will be different for Saturday's LifeLock.com 400 (6:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Fast facts

What	LifeLock.com 400
When	Green, 8:20 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	TNT, 6:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 7:15 ET

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• By the Numbers: Chicagoland

The drivers and teams have built up an extensive knowledge base at the track for the past seven years. But all of that information has been gathered in the heat of the day during the hottest time of the year in the Midwest.

Much of that goes out the window now, as this weekend's race is run at night under the lights for the first time.

"It will definitely be different," said Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch. "It's going to be the first time for everybody to try to learn what the track is going to do -- whether it's like Charlotte, or how much it changes from day to night. So if it really tightens up or if it loosens up, or if it stays the same -- nobody knows any of that."

The variables are compounded by the fact that teams will be racing the new car at Chicagoland for the first time. Even four-time series champion and 2006 Chicagoland winner Jeff Gordon isn't quite sure what to expect.

"Any time you go to a track that you haven't been to with this car, then you're always going to have questions, you know, what's going to work, what's not going to work," Gordon said. "I still don't feel like we've really figured out what we need to be battling for wins and leading laps, but we're working really hard on that. In terms of sheer speed, we still need to gain."

Setups may change and the new car will add a twist, but the way to Victory Lane will be the same according to two-time Chicagoland winner Kevin Harvick.

"The fastest way around Chicago is to run the white line the entire race," Harvick said. "However, you never know what the tires and all the other circumstances are going to be. The track is still aging and it loses grip every time we go back. Over the past couple of years, we have been able to run up the racetrack a little bit. But I think the person who can run the white line the entire race will win."

Chicagoland is one of Harvick's better tracks -- his two wins are backed up by four top-five finishes and five finishes in the top 10. But 2008 has been a struggle, and Harvick is fighting to maintain his Chase chances. He's currently 13th in points, just two behind Tony Stewart for 12th.

"Chicago has obviously been really good to us as far as the numbers go, but a lot of other places have been good to us too as far as the numbers have gone and nothing has really gone right this year," Harvick said. "We've wrecked too much. We've made a lot of mistakes. We started off the year really well and just haven't had anything go right since about Week 5. It's good to come to a racetrack where things are going good and hopefully you get that monkey off your back and you can go on with it."

Notes: Only two times in seven races has the winner at Chicagoland started inside the top 10; Harvick started sixth in 2001 and Tony Stewart started 10th in 2004. Saturday will also mark the 50th anniversary of Richard Petty's first NASCAR start -- he finished sixth of 25 cars in a Convertible Division race at Columbia (S.C.) Speedway on July 12, 1958.