Open Wheels Set to Turn Loose

Heading into the 2007 Cup season, Juan Pablo Montoya made headlines everywhere throughout the racing world when he announced his deal to come from open wheel racing to race the no. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi in NASCAR.  Looking back on what he accomplished during ’07, I think it’s safe to say that he didn’t walk away as any sort of a contender for the sport’s most popular driver award and he certainly didn’t look to be a championship contender.  However, if you take his success from the open wheel circuit out of the equation and you take all the expectations and media hoopla off the table, I think that his 2007 Rookie of the Year award and the numbers he was able to put up for his team could easily be translated into a successful debut.  20th in points, 6 top ten finishes, and a win … nothing to sneeze at for a stock car rookie.

So, that’s the bar that’s been set for the other guys of open wheel fame that have decided to make the jump to NASCAR … meaning that Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, and Dario Franchitti are about to have their work cut out for them.   They all actually made their official debuts at the end of 2007 running some Busch races – and, all except Franchitti ran a few Cup races as well – but, they were all just “feeler” runs, none of which amounted to any degree of success in terms of actual race results with the exception of a top 5 Busch Series run from Carpentier.

The good news for these four “rookies”, however, is that after watching Juan Montoya’s run in the Cup Series in 2007, I think fans and team owners were actually served a dose of what they can realistically expect from these drivers when they first begin driving the stock cars. I mean, what is the real pressure here for these guys to be successful in 2008? Sam Hornish Jr. will be piloting a brand new race team for Penske Motorsports, so I’d imagine their only real goal for this year is to finish the season ranked within the top 35 in owner points. Carpentier is taking over a car for Gillett Evernham that failed to finish in the top 35 in 2007, so that team’s goal is going to have to be the same as that of Hornish’s team. Villeneuve will be driving for Bill Davis Racing, which hasn’t been successful in years. So, as you can see, there’s not a whole lot of pressure for those three to come out blazing right out of the gates this year … the same cannot be said for Franchitti, however. Chip Ganassi made the executive decision to relieve David Stremme of his ride behind the no. 40 Dodge in favor of Franchitti. Stremme was able to secure just three top 10 finishes in ’07, but he did manage to finish 24th in points, which is more than enough to secure the car’s spot in the first five races of 2008, regardless of where they qualify. That means that Franchitti is going to be feeling a lot of pressure right away that these other guys won’t be, because as Montoya showed us last season … regardless of your driving experience in the open wheel market, bringing the car home in the top 25 at the end of your first NASCAR season is no easy chore.

 Somebody must’ve already gotten to Dario with this information before me, though, because he finished Thursday’s practice session at Daytona ranked 4th on the speed charts with his best time coming in at 47.689 seconds. The next of the open wheel drivers was Sam Hornish Jr. in 8th, turning in a lap at 47.836 seconds.  Carpentier, Montoya, and Villeneuve were all outside of the top 30 on the charts.