Cheever

NAZARETH, Pa. -- It's blind, it's odd, it's funky and it has -- gasp -- hills. Nazareth Speedway is strange. And I love this place.

The last time I raced at Nazareth was both a dream come true and a nightmare, proving why this weird little track in eastern Pennsylvania is both a marvelous gem and a monumental challenge. In 1995, while driving A.J. Foyt's car in a CART race at Nazareth, I led until the final lap. Using his years of experience, A.J. had applied a brilliant setup that kept my tires from getting cluttered with rubbish, a common problem at Nazareth. However, we just missed on fuel calculations, and the rest is history.

A little more history goes a long way in explaining Nazareth. It opened in 1966 as a dirt track built in the hills, apparently without the use of a level. Pancho Carter, who won the last USAC race in 1983 before the track was paved, once said Nazareth was laid out as if the owners wanted to take the track to the very edges of the property lines. I'd like to believe that was the reason for the odd twists and blind turns that make Nazareth the most unique one-mile track we'll visit -- and the one with the best personality.

As you approach the start-finish line, you find yourself in the middle of a kink. Positioning yourself properly in that kink is crucial to what happens on each lap. From the kink, you drive uphill into Turn 2, a bizarre encounter that's utterly unseen. None -- and I mean none -- of the turns we'll go through this season in the Indy Racing League is blocked from vision like this one. It's a road-racing turn on an oval track.

In high-speed open-wheel racing, long-range vision is essential to successful driving. The best drivers see as far ahead of their cars as possible; those who focus only on the tail of the car in front of them are destined to meet that tail. Heading into Turn 2 at Nazareth, there is no long-range vision. You simply can't see. If something happens in front of your car, you don't know it until it's too late.

If you're lucky enough to make it cleanly through 2, you dive downhill into 3, which also taxes your concentration. You can't loaf at Nazareth -- you barely have a clear spot to key the radio, let alone take a deep breath. Nazareth is cool because it's different. What makes it cool also makes it difficult.

The Red Bull Cheever Racing crew and I have tested five different setups so far at Nazareth. We'll wait until Sunday's race to decide, depending on weather and track condition, which one to use. This is a busy place, an engineering dichotomy that forces us to rely on proper selection of shock absorbers and technical wizardry to get the balance just right.

Nazareth is a completely different animal; it's like nothing we ever race on. Nothing else is even close. None of the other short tracks we race -- Pikes Peak, Richmond, Phoenix or Gateway -- apply here. Having said that, experience does count at Nazareth. It's the first time the IRL has raced at this track. Having raced here in the past gives me a little bit more with which to work.

Nazareth has always been known as a good place for drivers and teams that weren't supposed to win. When Foyt and I led, we definitely weren't supposed to have been winning the race. In the last CART race at Nazareth, Scott Dixon was a surprise winner. You can use special pit strategy and do a variety of things at this track. For some reason, the configuration of Nazareth allows people to think outside the box, which is always a good thing.

If there's one thing about this team in which I take the most pride, it's our ability to think on our feet, to think unconventionally, to make things fit when they aren't supposed to fit. We're like a band of pirates sailing in a sea of treasure ships. We definitely aren't expected to win this race. Given the venue, our approach and experience, I like our chances.

As long as I can keep the car inside the property lines.

IRL driver Eddie Cheever Jr. owns and drives the No. 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing Infiniti car. He will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the season.