Former Formula One and CART champion Jacques Villeneuve will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut Saturday on a very familiar track.
The Canadian driver will be at the wheel of the No. 32 Braun Racing Toyota at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named for his late father, another F1 star.
“Knowing the track as I do is obviously a big advantage, but I do worry about the Formula One habits that I have already formed,” said Villeneuve, who hoped to run full-time in Sprint Cup this season before a lack of sponsorship cut short his effort. “My biggest worry is my brake lines. I will have to constantly remind myself not to use the Formula One brake markers that I am accustomed to.”
Villeneuve, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner, last raced in Montreal in 2006 with the BMW Sauber F1 team. His best finish at the track on Notre Dame Island near downtown Montreal was sixth in 1996 while driving for Team Williams.
Villeneuve made seven NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts and ran two Cup races last season.
He tested the No. 32 Braun Camry last week on a road circuit in South Carolina.
“The test went really very well; almost better than I expected,” Villeneuve said. “Driving the Nationwide cars on the (road) course was a big surprise to me. It’s very different than the other cars I have driven. It was a great learning experience.
“The Braun Racing team was excellent to work with and, as the car became more familiar to me and we got into a rhythm as a team, it was a lot of fun. After the two days of testing, we got the car setup so that we should be very competitive this weekend.”
More action.
Jimmie Johnson, coming off his victory in last Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, has added a pair of races to his 2008 schedule.
In addition to his duties behind the wheel of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Johnson will drive the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet fielded by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen on Aug. 9.
The two-time reigning Sprint Cup champion will also make his Truck Series debut in the No. 81 Kobalt Tools Silverado fielded by Randy Moss Motorsports at Bristol on Aug. 20.
In Nationwide, Johnson has made 88 starts, with his only victory coming in 2001 — his second and final full season in the former Busch Series — at Chicagoland.
“Watkins Glen and Bristol are two tracks where I really want a win,” Johnson said. “I enjoy racing (on the road course) at Watkins Glen and, for some reason (I) always seem to be a little better there than Sonoma. We’ve had some top-fives so, hopefully, this will put us in the win column.
“As for the trucks, I am really looking forward to that. I have never run a truck race, so it should be fun. Heck, my brother Jarit has run more than me. But it’s going to be a good time.”
Charity work.
For the first time since 1997, the August race at Pocono Raceway has a title sponsor — and it’s one that can make a difference.
Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race will be called the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.
“Pocono Raceway admires and respects the work of the Red Cross and wanted to help support its mission and the great work they do for families in Pennsylvania,” said track president Brandon Igdalsky.
As part of this partnership, Pocono Raceway will donate 10 percent of the ticket revenue generated by online ticket buyers who use the promo code REDCROSS to American Red Cross Chapters in the area. The first 1,500 ticket buyers using the promo code also receive a free prerace Pit/Paddock Pass, a souvenir program and commemorative die cast car.
In addition, the track has added a donation collection site on its Web site, will donate a portion of the proceeds from T-shirt sales and provide the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter the opportunity to collect donations at the race.
The Red Cross is also receiving a percentage of the proceeds from a charity walk hosted by the NASCAR Foundation on Saturday.
Bad weekend.
Kyle Busch can probably be excused if he isn’t very happy to be back at Pocono Raceway this weekend.
The 23-year-old driver, whose magical 2008 season has included a NASCAR record 15 wins spread across three series, finished last in the 43-car Sprint Cup field at the June race at Pocono, his worst finish of the season on any circuit.
It was just a bad weekend for Busch, who wrecked his primary car in Saturday’s practice session, started at the rear of the field when he had to switch to his backup Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and was running deep in traffic when he ran into Jamie McMurray as they battled for the same spot of track.
It was one of only two times Busch finished worse than 25th in a Cup race, and the only Cup race he failed to finish this season.
Still, Busch said he was ready to face Pocono’s 1.5-mile oval again in Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500.
“We had a horrible race the last time we were there. … Can’t get much worse than 43rd, I guess,” he said. “But I feel like we had a fairly decent car before our wreck.
“We were coming through the field and making up some ground. We might be able to work off that to be competitive there again this time around. So, for that reason, I am looking forward to getting back and putting that last Pocono race behind us.” Busch heads into the weekend with a 253-point lead over Cup runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., and wants to up his momentum with just six races remaining until the start of the 10-race Chase for the championship.
Last Sunday’s race at Indianapolis was a well-documented tire debacle, with no green-flag run longer than 12 laps. Busch led twice for 14 laps at Indy, but had a pretty quiet day otherwise, finishing 15th.
“It wasn’t a fun race, that’s for sure,” Busch said. “It was a long day. But, at this point, all that matters to us are wins and trophies.” With each Cup victory adding a 10-point bonus for the start of the Chase, Busch has six wins in NASCAR’s elite series and 60 bonus points built up already.
“With the position we’re in, that’s what we’re focused on,” he added. “Just earning as many of those bonus points as we can by the time we get to New Hampshire (for the start of the Chase).
Obviously, we’re not looking to go out there and be reckless and do something stupid.
“(But) there’s something to be said for carrying some momentum into the Chase. That’s what Jimmie (Johnson) and those (No.) 48 guys were able to do last year. We’ve had some bumps in the road this season, but this M&M team has been pretty resilient. We’ve just got to rebound and make sure that 48 team doesn’t pick up too much steam.” Johnson, the two-time reigning Cup champion, got his second victory of the season at Indy and goes into Sunday’s race fourth in the points.
Victory circle.
Pocono Raceway is one of only six tracks where Mark Martin has not yet won a Cup points race. But that doesn’t mean he’d rather be racing elsewhere this weekend.
“I have never won at Pocono, but it’s still one of my favorite tracks that we go to,” said Martin, who finished 10th there in June. “It really goes to show that you don’t have to win somewhere to love it. I’ve won at Martinsville a couple of times and don’t like the place at all.
“Now we have had some good runs (at Pocono) over the years,” added Martin, who has six runner-up finishes at the Pennsylvania track. “We had a good car there in June and we qualified well, but didn’t race quite as well. Our challenge this weekend will be to make the car better for the race.”
Martin said he doesn’t expect any more of the tire problems that everyone experienced at Indy.
“We all had a tough race last week at Indy, but everyone hung in there and did the best they could,” he said. “We had trouble early and it was a bad situation all around, but (crew chief) Tony Gibson and all of the guys on this No. 8 team dug in and fought to the end. We made the best of a bad situation. Hopefully, this weekend we’ll have a lot better go of it on the track.” Martin, who has 35 Cup victories, also has yet to win at New Hampshire, Daytona, Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Homestead.
Childress gift.
The family of NASCAR team owner Richard Childress has donated $5 million to initiate the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The institute will focus on key areas in treatment, education and training, research and prevention of trauma in children. The project will get under way later this year.
The Childress family and Wake Forest Baptist are working with a number of corporations and individuals to raise an additional $20 million.
“Most people don’t know that traumatic injury is the biggest killer of our children,” said Childress, a former driver who fields four cars in the Cup series. “The Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma will be the focal point of a national movement to improve the level of pediatric trauma care available across the country. … The Childress family is committed to making the Childress Institute the leader in pediatric trauma care.”
The Associated Press
