Villeneuve expected at UAW-Ford 500

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Villeneuve expected at UAW-Ford 500
By Lee Spencer, FOXSports.com

Jacques Villeneuve is expected to make his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend in the No. 27 Bill Davis Racing Toyota Camry.

The former Formula 1 and CART champ will be one of three BDR entries in the UAW-Ford 500 on October 7. Slugger Labbe, who received his release from Ginn Racing last month, will serve as Villeneuve's crew chief. The race marks two milestones — the coming-out party for Villeneuve in the Cup, and the first Car of Tomorrow race on the 2.66-mile speedway (the biggest track to date for a COT race).

Villeneuve ran his first CTS race last Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 36-year-old native St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, qualified seventh and finished 21st. The "rookie" participated in a successful test with Cup regulars on Sept. 10-11 at Talladega. By running a significant number of laps competitively in the draft with Cup regulars along with his performance at Vegas, NASCAR deemed that Villeneuve was ready to roll next weekend.

BDR is also expected to field Villeneuve in both the ARCA and Craftsman Truck races. BDR Rookie Michael Annett will also compete in the ARCA event on Friday.
 
It's odd that poeple are against Villeneuve and Montoya yet don't seem to have a problem with Scott Speed. Very strange :confused:
 
I'm not against foreign drivers --- I'm with Jeff Gordon on this, putting him into a race at Talladega is just not fair. Not fair to him, not fair to the other drivers.

Plate racing is whole different animal. Throwing him into the fire without first letting him get used to the frying pan is just wrong.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
I'm not against foreign drivers --- I'm with Jeff Gordon on this, putting him into a race at Talladega is just not fair. Not fair to him, not fair to the other drivers.

Plate racing is whole different animal. Throwing him into the fire without first letting him get used to the frying pan is just wrong.
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TexasRaceLady said:
I'm not against foreign drivers --- I'm with Jeff Gordon on this, putting him into a race at Talladega is just not fair. Not fair to him, not fair to the other drivers.

Plate racing is whole different animal. Throwing him into the fire without first letting him get used to the frying pan is just wrong.
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You said it right TRL!
 
Patrick9999 said:
It's odd that poeple are against Villeneuve and Montoya yet don't seem to have a problem with Scott Speed. Very strange :confused:
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What we are seeing and complaining about is the FormulaOneIfacation of NASCAR. And, who's started this? Open wheel car owners.

Here's the rub and I'm not going to say that I don't like it, but with all the changes that NASCAR is throwing into the series, it appears that more and more of the series is going global. It's nice to have competition between countries and we all love it when the US wins in anything from the Olympics to the America's Cup. But right now, NASCAR is still just a USA sport and when there's a foreign driver out there, it's not yet like the F1 series where it is country vs. country when it comes to driver or auto makes. Maybe that is what Brian France is wanting, to make the series a more diverse series where it isn't just driver vs. driver, but country/race or what ever vs. the same.

I have always liked Jaques, and will continue. I liked JPM before, and still like him, but my feelings for the premier series in NASCAR is finally waning. The only thing that will fix it for me is if the racing become considerably better.
 
I don't have anything against the open wheelers coming into Nascar, but the timing of this is just WRONG. It's so late in the season to just plop a guy into a car whose only done testing. His father was my favorite F1 driver and I have a lot of respect for Jacques, but putting him in a cup race during the championship is just wrong, in my opinion.
 
As long as the series allows for anyone to qualify, there shouldn't be a problem with this. What if Handsome Harry Gant were to give the race a try? What about Rusty Wallace? What about Bill Elliott? I know that those guys have all raced and raced and raced that track, but they have all, with the slight exception of Elliott been away from racing for a while. Unless you make a rule that any new driver must first begin racing at the first race of the season, this shouldn't give you a problem.

I know that for many of us old fans, the introduction of new drivers, especially late in the season, is not a good idea, but how are you going to prevent this from happening? The name of this game is racing. If you as a driver/owner are afraid of what might happen out on the track, then you might as well hang it up. I can understand the fans being upset with this, but those in the garage know that there are always newbies waiting to make the race and when they do, those are the guys they need to keep an eye out for.
 
Obviously I'm a huge fan of JV as I was when his father raced F1 but I think putting him in the Talladega race is a huge mistake. Yes he did well in his truck race but come on.........Talladega?

I hate to say this but I hope he doesn't make the field because if he does and causes a huge wreck taking out Cup contenders it could hinder his Nascar future.
 
While I agree that the track/timing may be wrong, I can understand why some teams are seeking out big name drivers. It's the only way to get some TV exposure as the networks focus on a few teams and certain drivers.

Nascar should, however, consider that a 200+ mph track is probably not the best place to debut a new driver with very limited experience in any Nascar series.
 
After the chase starts I'd be awful cautious of letting anybody make their rookie debut. No matter whether short or plate race there are enough chances for a chaser to be screwed by a accident let alone a rookie. Only good thing about this is that he still would have to qualify on speed which could be iffy.
 
I gott go with JG on this one. I think trying to put Jacques in a car at Dega is a bad idea. Nothing against him, his race, nationality or whatever, if I were a car owner & anyone came up to me & said they wanted to make their first Cup race the second Dega event I would decline because it's just too important of an event in the chase. I mean the level of what could happen is mindboggling. If it were Phoenix or Martinsville that would be OK but not Talladega. Especialy with the "Brick" making it's debut at the speedway this weekend you guys all know they opened the plate some giving the drivers about 80 more hp this weekend cause obviously the "Brick" is non-aerodynamic. They better have Jacques in that NCTS race on Saturday first of all so he can get used to tight running in the draft. I felt the same way about JPM last season. F1 people like to think they have the best drivers on the planet over there & that there's nowhere that they cannot be successful just because Zanardi was a soso driver in F1 but kicked CART's butt when he came over here. Then JPM was an F1 test driver & came over to CART & was just as almost as good as Zanardi. It ain't the same, nothing else on this planet is like NASCAR Winston Cup racing. Drivers who've been champions in other series like CART, F1, IMSA, & WOO have had minimal success at taming NASCAR. It's tough, JPM knows that now & soon Villenueve will also.
 
It seems to me that a race track that is known for huge pile ups, one that is obviously high up on the focus meter, is not a place to debut a new driver. I'm all for letting new guys enter NASCAR, but let them get at least 10 races under their belt in a lower series like Busch ,CTS, ARCA or Trucks. This will add to the drama of course, the media and TV will harp on it. I don't think Nascar thought this one out thoroughly enough, i think there should be some kind of rule that a driver has to have a minimum number of races before jumping into the Premier series.
 
Mopardh9 said:
It seems to me that a race track that is known for huge pile ups, one that is obviously high up on the focus meter, is not a place to debut a new driver. I'm all for letting new guys enter NASCAR, but let them get at least 10 races under their belt in a lower series like Busch ,CTS, ARCA or Trucks. This will add to the drama of course, the media and TV will harp on it. I don't think Nascar thought this one out thoroughly enough, i think there should be some kind of rule that a driver has to have a minimum number of races before jumping into the Premier series.
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Perhaps that is why Nascar is letting him race..........more drama, more press, etc............forget the drivers fighting fo the Championship.:rolleyes:
 
muggle not said:
Perhaps that is why Nascar is letting him race..........more drama, more press, etc............forget the drivers fighting fo the Championship.:rolleyes:
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BINGO!!!!!!!!!! I really like the guy, but I'm going to cringe if he gets in the race and happens to take out any Chase drivers. He's going to take so much crap about it when in fact, Nascar should know better.

Oh and to answer above about letting Rusty race again? Well, if I didn't have to listen to him flub announcing races, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. :D
 
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