TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Villeneuve Says No Offense Taken

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

TALLADEGA, Ala. - It had the makings of a heated controversy, but Jacques Villeneuve wasn't playing.

Villeneuve, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1997 Formula One world champion, insisted Friday he wasn't insulted by comments from Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and others saying that NASCAR should not have approved him to make his Nextel Cup debut this weekend at Talladega.

'I would have said the same thing,' a relaxed and confident-sounding Villeneuve said outside his hauler. 'I would have expected worse in Europe, for example. So that's no big deal. It's natural. It wasn't bad or mean or anything.'

Gordon and others suggested last week at Kansas that NASCAR should have made Villeneuve run some easier tracks before taking on the Talladega Cup race during the middle of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Gordon repeated his reservations Friday, saying the issue isn't Villeneuve's talent, but rather his inexperience and the hairy racing that takes place at Talladega. Other drivers, including Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer, agreed.

But Villeneuve, who has to qualify for Sunday's UAW-Ford 500, said drivers are wrong about him.

'They don't know who I am, so of course it's a big question mark for them,' he said. 'But I know I've never been a stupid driver; I've always been patient, and I want to race patiently and not get in their way.'

DRIVING BLIND: Although there were no crashes in Friday's two Nextel Cup practice sessions, drivers continued to fret about Sunday's race at NASCAR's most wreck-prone track and the superspeedway debut of the Car of Tomorrow.

'I hope everybody brought as many cameras as possible, because it is definitely going to be history,' Denny Hamlin said. 'It is crazy because you just don't know where the cars are going to go. The old cars, you kind of had an idea when you were going to get a run; the cars didn't move around a whole lot. Now it just seems like the cars wander in the corner quite a bit. You never know when a guy really gets on you.'

Matt Kenseth likened the visibility limitations in the COT to driving directly behind a semi-truck on the interstate and not being able to tell what's going on ahead. His Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards said not being able to see through the car ahead because of the rear wing is 'a bit scary.'

'I told my spotter, 'You've got to tell me what's going on in front of me,' because if I'm behind a guy, it's like you just get this big blind zone that's bigger than it ever was before,' Edwards said.

Drivers use hand signals at some tracks, but as close the cars run at Talladega, that's an option most will avoid.

'You don't want to really put your hand out the window, because at 200 mph you could get your hand hurt,' Kenseth said. 'And when you put your hand up in the mirror, the trailing driver can't see over these wings.'

NO BUMPING: NASCAR officials set the tone for how they're going to police bump-drafting in Sunday's race, penalizing Hamlin during the first of two practice sessions Friday.

Hamlin was ordered off the track near the end of the first practice and was held out for the first 15 minutes of the second practice for ignoring a directive to discontinue bump-drafting.

'I was finished there anyway, but they parked me at the end,' Hamlin said. 'We asked what was the difference in us and everybody else with the front and back bumpers beat off. They said we were on TV while we were doing it, so I guess we can blame the TV cameras.'

HOT LAPS: Tony Stewart posted the fastest speed (194.054 mph) in Friday's Happy Hour practice. ... Zephyrhills' David Reutimann, who has to qualify on speed today, was 26th on the speed chart in the final practice. Tampa's Aric Almirola, who has a guaranteed starting berth in Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s No. 01 Chevy, was only 46th-quickest out of 49 drivers in the final practice.

Tony Fabrizio

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT