Jacques Villeneuve makes second foray into NASCAR
Jacques Villeneuve is back in NASCAR this weekend, attempting to make the field for the Sprint Cup Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Fifteen years after winning the Indianapolis 500, America's most prestigious open-wheel race, Villeneuve is driving the No. 32 Toyota for Braun Racing, a team that competes full time in the Nationwide Series but that must qualify for Sunday’s race on time.
For Villeneuve, it’s yet another step in a lengthy and diverse career — one that had him taking a shot at the Sprint Cup Series a few years ago. The 1995 CART and 1997 Formula One champion drove a couple of races for Bill Davis Racing in 2007 in preparation for an attempt at a full season in 2008, but sponsorship concerns waylaid that effort before it got off the ground.
He’s run some Nationwide races in the years in between, including at Elkhart Lake, Wisc., for Braun this season.
He admits that transitioning to stock cars hasn’t been particular easy for him. The toughest part?
“The lingo,” he said. “The way you set the car up, talking with the crew chief using inches instead of millimeters and that kind of stuff. So, sometimes the conversations can be a little bit confusing because it’s hard to understand what we’re both talking about because we’re using different words and different habits of working.
“But that just takes a little while to get up to speed with. We’ve been working. We’ve done Montreal twice together with the team, with Trent (Owens), my crew chief. ... Now it’s quite easy to understand what we’re saying to each other.”
As to where he plans to go from here, Villeneuve seems to be exploring a multitude of options — and to be keeping an open mind to a variety of forms of motorsports.
“There’s a lot going on, and until you have something finalized, you have to look at every opportunity that’s out there,” he said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I really, really enjoy driving the NASCARs. That’s why I moved back on this side of the ocean in 2006, was to concentrate on NASCAR. And it’s taken a while to get going.
“Right now, we got Elkhart Lake going, we’re coming here to the Brickyard. So, it’s starting to open up a little bit. It would be great if we could carry on doing more ovals. Obviously, there has been a lot of talk about Formula One, and as long as this is an option, I have to keep it open. It’s really hard to tell you what the preference would be because you have to wait until the real opportunity is there on the table. Until there’s something full time that we can get going, I can’t really focus on one.”
Right now, the one he is focused on is making the race at Indy.
“First, we have to qualify,” he said. “This is not a qualified car, so that creates another level of pressure. So, we’ll have to spend today on just the qualifying setup and getting used to the track to try and make the show. That’s the main issue right now. And hopefully it won’t rain. Then we’ll see how it goes after that. If we can have a good race, it will definitely be an important one for what happens in the future.”
Qualifying for the Brickyard 400 is scheduled for Saturday at 10:10 a.m. ET.
