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Dario Franchitti (left, talking to driver and Virginia native Elliott Sadler in Daytona Saturday) is parking his Indy car to compete in NASCAR.
Sam Hornish Jr., a popular IRL driver who won the 2006 Indianapolis 500, has found he has some new fans in the NASCAR circles. Hornish will compete in stock cars this season.
Juan Pablo Montoya, a former F1 driver, was the top rookie in NASCAR in 2007. |
BY JIM McCONNELL
Last season, Juan Pablo Montoya was signing autographs at Talladega Superspeedway when a fan asked him where he was from.
After Montoya's reply, the fan turned to his friend and said, "See, I told you all the good drivers were from South Carolina."
Montoya, of course, hails from Colombia (the country in South America), not Columbia (the city in South Carolina), but that's beside the point.
What impressed the former Indy 500 champion and Formula One star was the fervor with which millions of Americans follow NASCAR.
"I love the fans here. They're just so passionate about the sport. For a driver, if they're cheering for you or against you, it's cool to see," Montoya said last month.
That passion helped the France family build stock-car racing from a mostly Southern hobby into an empire that ranks second only to the NFL in attendance and television viewership. And it's one of the reasons why several successful open-wheel drivers decided to follow Montoya and give NASCAR a spin.
Including Montoya, at least two former Indianapolis 500 champions will be on the starting grid Sunday for the 50th running of the Daytona 500.
2006 Indy winner Sam Hornish Jr., a NASCAR rookie now competing for Penske Racing, is guaranteed a spot in this season's first five races because his No. 77 team inherited the owner points earned last season by teammate Kurt Busch.
Two others--Jacques Villeneuve and defending Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti--can earn starting berths in Sunday's season-opener based on their finishes in Thursday's twin 150-mile qualifying races.
Throw in Canadian Patrick Carpentier, who finished 11th in Sunday's time trials, and nearly 10 percent of the 43-car field could be comprised of new open-wheel transplants.
And that number doesn't include Scott Speed, the F-1 alumnus who is running stock cars in the ARCA series as preparation for a NASCAR bid in the near future.
"To have guys come from Formula One, one of the biggest racing organizations in the world, is a tribute to NASCAR. I think it just shows what type of racing we have, that these guys want to come here to race. That's good for our whole sport," said Montoya's crew chief, Donnie Wingo.
While stars such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne all grew up racing open-wheel cars before making the move to NASCAR, Montoya has been widely credited for launching NASCAR's "open wheel invasion."
The affable Colombian won as a rookie last season on the road course at Infineon Raceway--the first foreign-born driver to win a Cup race since Canada's Earl Ross took the checkered flag in Martinsville 34 years ago. He also posted six top-10s, three top-5s and finished a respectable 20th in points.
Fans and fellow drivers weren't the only ones impressed by the way Montoya handled the transition from lighter, more nimble open-wheel cars to clunky, 3,600-pound stock cars. Car owners also took notice.
Just a year after he gambled on Montoya, Chip Ganassi lured Franchitti away from the IndyCar Series to replace David Stremme in the No. 40 Cup ride.
Hornish, a two-time IndyCar series champion, left Penske's open-wheel operation to head up a third Cup team.
Gillett Evernham Racing inked a deal with Carpentier, who takes over for Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Dodge.
Bill Davis scored perhaps the biggest coup by landing former F-1 series champion Villeneuve to pilot Toyotas for his financially challenged Sprint Cup operation.
From top to bottom, it's quite possibly the most decorated rookie class in NASCAR history.
"[Moving to Cup] was the next thing. This is what was going to keep me motivated and push me," Hornish said. "I feel that if I hadn't decided to do this, even though I'm only 28 years old, I don't know how much longer I wanted to race. I needed a new challenge."
Make no mistake: The challenge is daunting. Not only do the open-wheel converts have to compete with the world's most talented stock-car racers, they'll do so while learning how to negotiate mostly unfamiliar tracks in vehicles that drive nothing like the sleek machines they left behind.
"Every time we tested over the winter, we tested every week, and when we finished at a track I was like, 'Now I got it down; I know how it works.' Then we go to a different track and run the same as I was before, so it's a lot of learning. It's going to be like that all year," Carpentier said.
Added Franchitti: "Some days when it's not going well, I think this is tougher than I thought. But you can't give up. These are early days. You have to keep pushing and I'm at the bottom of a pretty big hill."
Defending Daytona 500 champion Kevin Harvick suggested earlier this month that the open-wheel drivers would benefit from spending a full season in the Nationwide Series, where they could learn on the job without the pressure of representing big-money sponsors in Sprint Cup.
But while their fellow racers might not be sure about drafting with them, their presence has been greeted warmly by the power brokers who are constantly exploring ways to expand NASCAR's reach.
Despite concerns about how they would react to foreign drivers competing in what had been an all-American club, the fans are coming around, too.
"Even for the test at Fontana I told the guys, 'Man, there's more people here than I had at my last race," Carpentier said. "It's fun to see. I love to interact with people. I'm having fun so far and that's what I want to keep this year."
Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com
| SPEED WEEKS SCHEDULE: Thursday: Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races (2 p.m. SPEED) Sunday: Daytona 500 (2 p.m., Fox) |
