Ready or Not, Here He Comes
October 5, 2007 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Last week, former Formula One Champion Jacques Villeneuve announced that he would make his stock car debut at Talladega Superspeedway. Jacques joined Bill Davis Racing to get behind the wheel in truck race at Las Vegas last week, but has never officially raced in a stock car. He was originally scheduled to participate in the ARCA race at Talladega, but due to a successful practice session, NASCAR has approved his request to enter his name for the Cup race.
Villeneuve will race the no. 27 car for Rick Hendrick this Sunday, and his teammates over at HMS have made it known that they do not believe this is a good idea. According to RacingOne.com, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson believe that all drivers should work their way up to a Cup race through the other series (Busch and ARCA), and even still, his inexperience could prove detrimental to one or more of the Chase contenders at a track of this nature. Kyle Busch’s response was, “He’s doing what? Holy cow, that’s not good.”
I’m not the type of guy that’s normally going to agree with anything that anyone from Hendrick Motorsports has to say, but in this case I feel it’s a must. In addition to the points that Gordon and Johnson have made, there are other things that should be taken into consideration … primarily the fact that since this is a Car of Tomorrow race, the veteran stock car drivers could easily struggle with their cars at this track, let alone a driver that sat in a stock car for the first time just 24 days ago.
NASCAR’s been pretty hit or miss with some of the decisions they’ve made as of late, and I’ve got to say that not only is this one a miss … it’s downright ludicrous.
T.Z.
You hit this on the head. I don’t believe dega would be a good place for anybody to have there first cup race. As the first (COT) at dega is already a big player in the chase, This guy here might be the bigger factor. He has no place on the race track this weekend. Your right it seem Nascar has been missing a lot this year but this one is horrible. I would put money on him being in the big one.
Roc
Roc,
I’m not sure what I’m more upset about … the fact that this could play such an important role in the outcome of this year’s championship run, or the fact that I was forced to agree with Jeff Gordon.
T.Z.
We all know your a closet fan. But I also had to hang my head in shame and agree with all three of the hendrick boys. I sure that will not happen again. I hope.
Roc
Of all the tracks for Villeneuve to debut, he has to pick Talladega. Unbelievable.
No point in starting him out on a milder track like Bristol or Las Vegas. He has to start out on the bad boy that is Talladega.
And in the middle of the points chase, no less.
I hope he doesn’t do something stupid that costs somebody the NEXTEL Cup.
I think if he start on somewhere like Bristol than he might feel a little clostrophobics. Beside it would be too easy for the vets to bump him around and not put themselves to much at risk. He should have started at New Hampshire, but I guess they figure that he would have a shot at a good finish since everyone finishes relatively close to the leader.
It is very unlikely that Villeneuve will qualify for the race at all. I think this must have been part of the thinking when he was put in this car to begin with. The thing is, it just doesn’t make any sense. What’s the hurry? As Gordon said, start at Atlanta. I have to disagree with you guys saying Bristol. First, the Bristol races are done for ‘07. Second, that place is just as weird as “dega. He wouldn’t learn anything there either.
Nice discussion and thanks for the link in the blogroll.
Looks like we’ll find out cause he Qualified 6 so we’ll se havew fast these toyotas fall to the back.
Unless the Toyota teams all sacraficed every other race with the COT to develope and test strictly for Dega or superspeedways, they’ve done something that will hopefully get caught during inspections.
Charlie,
I agree with your logic on Villeneuve 100%. While I don’t think that Talladega is the place where you want to make your first run in a stock car, I don’t think that 0.5 miles of Bristol is the place you want to go either. As it turns out, though, we were all very wrong on this issue … the guy didn’t run very well, but he certainly didn’t impact the outcome of the race in anyway, either. I also thought it was a very classy move on his part to voluntarily move to the back of the field for the start of the race after qualifying 6th.
In regards to the add to the blogroll, don’t mention it … I’ve rather enjoyed what I’ve read there and would encourage all of my readers to stop by and give your page a look.