Wave of open-wheel stars will raise NASCAR’s profile, but can they find success, acceptance in sport?
By Mike Hembree - Associate Editor
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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Juan Pablo Montoya started it all. Against the odds, he left a lucrative career and international fame in Formula One racing to detour to NASCAR, and much of the racing world watched with interest. Many observers predicted an ugly transition, but Montoya made the switch with relative ease, winning a race and driving up front while occasionally stubbing a toe.
By summer of last season, it was evident Montoya could drive heavier stock cars and that, given more time, he has the potential to be a significant force on this side of the street. That was enough to throw open the gates for his brethren from other open-wheel precincts, and through the entrance walked such stars as Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve, Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick Carpentier and, in the near future, maybe a few others.
They are international – if not in nationality or residence certainly in motorsports pedigree. It’s enough to wonder if open-wheel series have enough stars left to populate their grids.
Franchitti is from Scotland. He built his racing reputation in Indy cars, winning the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series championship in 2007. He will drive in Sprint Cup for Chip Ganassi Racing as a teammate to Montoya. Franchitti, who also is well known for being married to actress Ashley Judd, will become the first European to attempt to run Cup full time.
Villeneuve is from Canada and is one of that country’s biggest sports stars. He won championships in CART (1995) and Formula One (1997) and won the Indy 500 in 1995. He’ll make his run at Cup success with Bill Davis Racing.
Carpentier, a Canadian native who now lives in Las Vegas, has competed in the Indy Racing League and CART and almost won in his NASCAR Busch Series debut last August at Montreal. He will race in Cup this year with Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
Hornish, who was born in Ohio, has been one of the strongest open-wheel drivers in recent seasons. He won three IRL championships and the 2006 Indianapolis 500. He has flirted with NASCAR through the encouragement of team owner Roger Penske and will make the move full-time in a Penske Racing third car this year.
The aptly-named Scott Speed, a native of California, was the United States’ latest hope in Formula One racing. He won a national competition that placed an American in an F1 ride, but that experiment failed, and Speed now hopes to turn to NASCAR.
Open-wheel drivers have tested NASCAR sporadically since the 1950s, and there have been successes like A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, but Montoya and those who follow in his wake make this newest invasion the most significant in the sport’s history. It comes at a time when NASCAR has underlined its goal of making the sport as diverse as the country and at a time when the sport, its sponsors and its ownership base are becoming more global.
The results should be interesting. All – or none – of the newcomers might win. They arrive with different backgrounds, different expectations, different reasons for racing and – perhaps most notably in measuring their chances at success – with different teams in terms of quality.
Although the new drivers will have an impact, it remains to be seen if they will be accepted by NASCAR’s traditional fan base, which tends to side with the category of drivers who might fit into the “good ol’ boy” segment. Montoya, who certainly doesn’t qualify for that group, was greeted by ringing boos at most stops on the Cup tour last season.
“I think you have to step back and address the fact that what has gotten us where we are today is what we are,” says NASCAR President Mike Helton. “We’re proud of our heritage and proud of the things we’ve done to grow NASCAR to make it something desirable for people all around the world to watch and participate in. But the model that did that is the one we have right now, so we have to be careful not to change that model around too much. The exposure that Montoya or Franchitti and some of the others would bring to the series obviously is that they are eyebrow-raisers, and the levels of exposure and seriousness that come with them help the sport. But NASCAR is still open to everybody that wants to participate.”
The new drivers almost certainly will draw media attention, if for no other reason than there will be interest in how they perform. Although some of their fellow countrymen might expect big results quickly, the opposite is more likely to be the case. Adapting to radically different vehicles is a challenge.
“It will take years for these guys to be competitive,” says two-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. “Restrictor-plate racing and road-course racing will come easily for them. We all feel that Juan has done a great job coming in, but it’s going to take another year or so for him to get the oval stuff figured out and to be able to give the team the descriptions that it needs to know to make the adjustments on the car.
“They all are fantastic drivers, but if you took one of us and put us in an F1 car, we’d impress people, but to really be there fighting for the win week after week, it takes time to develop those skills and time to understand these cars.”
The biggest plus about the new arrivals – at least prior to the learning-the-ropes lessons – is the automatic international recognition that comes with them. Montoya created new fans for NASCAR both in Latin America (he was born in Colombia and still has a residence there) and in Europe, where Formula One devotees showed interest in watching his stock-car progress.
“I’m really glad to see a world-wide focus on our sport,” Johnson says. “Other drivers I know in Europe, when I would run these specialty races over there, would just frown at us. They wouldn’t even pay attention or engage in a conversation with me and Jeff [Gordon]. Now they’re paying attention.”
Potential sponsors are, too, says George Gillett, who bought into the Evernham Motorsports team last season. Gillett also has ownership interests in the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and a British soccer team.
“Sponsors today are increasingly worldwide in their interest,” Gillett says. “I can tell you that virtually every sponsor we talk to about NASCAR … very quickly wants to talk about the other sports we’re involved in from a sponsorship standpoint.”
It also has become clear to world-class drivers like Hornish and Franchitti that NASCAR currently has the best game going. Additionally, it’s another world to attempt to conquer.
“I made this choice mainly because I wanted to do something different,” Franchitti says. “I’m doing this purely for the chance to get in a car and do something new. I was very happy with my career in open wheel and with what I achieved there. It was just time to look at something different.”
Carpentier, a U.S. citizen, says NASCAR’s wider casting of the net – among other factors – brought him in.
“People say everybody wants to come here because the money’s here,” he says. “But I’ve been wanting to come here for quite a while. But you couldn’t. You couldn’t get in. Now you can. The teams are more open, and they want to go abroad with more sponsorships.
“For me, the IRL was too dangerous, a little bit too much on the edge. I’ve seen major crashes. I said, ‘That’s enough.’”
Carpentier has one of the most unusual backgrounds of any of the newcomers – indeed, of anyone in the Cup garage. Growing up in Canada, his first thoughts of speed centered on ice. A star speedskater as a kid, he raced in the Canadian and North American championships, training in the winter on the skating ovals at the former Olympic site in Lake Placid, N.Y.
He started racing with wheels at 11 and gave up speedskating. Now he plans to immerse himself in stock-car culture – and in stock cars.
“Joe Nemechek told me you have to drive, drive, drive and live in that car every day,” Carpentier says. “That’s what these guys do. They’re always driving. If you come into their territory, you have to try to keep up with them.
“This is like a dream for me. I love it. I’m so happy. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Can they find success? Toyota executive Andy Graves sees that question from both sides. He worked with Montoya during his successful Indy racing run and has been a leading NASCAR garage operative for years.
“I don’t think there’s a clear-cut formula where you can easily pick who’s going to adapt quicker than others,” Graves says. “Obviously, Juan Pablo has done a great job coming in and winning a race and has had some really good runs on the ovals, but I think he’s the exception to the rule. Robby Gordon was here for a pretty good while before he had success, and he’s a very talented open-wheel driver.”
The bottom line on performance, Graves says, is communication.
“Those guys have learned to give feedback that matches the data acquisition systems that they’re allowed to use [in open-wheel racing],” he says. “In NASCAR, the driver is your data system. You have to rely on him and his feedback. The driver might be complaining that the car is loose off the corner, but it might be that he’s got too much steering wheel angle in and that he’s actually too tight in the center of the corner. It’s difficult to figure out, and that’s where you see the teams that are successful week in and week out are those teams where the driver, crew chief and engineer are on the same page.”
Count NASCAR veteran Mark Martin among Montoya’s fans. He calls Montoya “an incredibly exceptional race-car driver” and says the open-wheelers who follow have a tough act to duplicate.
“How well they can do depends on a whole array of things – equipment, team, desire, fire,” he says. “There are a lot of elements that all have to line up for it to work well and for you to be able to win. I would say Juan Montoya would be the gold standard right now for making the transition and what all of them should aspire to.”
The invasion can be sort of a double-edged sword. These are universally known drivers with the ability to attract new fans and new sponsors, but there also is the question of acceptance levels among longtime NASCAR devotees.
Car owner Bill Davis, who is responsible for Villeneuve’s arrival, says evolution is at work.
“I’ve been here in racing for a long time, and I’m certainly a traditionalist,” he says. “I don’t think NASCAR is going to move that far from the fan base. Hopefully, we’ll just grow it. The guy who’s been a [Richard] Petty or [David] Pearson fan all these years and maybe later taken up with somebody else like Mark Martin, I don’t see them not embracing the sport for what it is. The same things are still here. We’ve just kind of expanded our horizons.”
And Davis believes those horizons can be stretched again and again.
“From NASCAR’s point of view, it’s becoming more of a global sport,” he says. “It opens new doors for more international sponsors and for a new awareness around the world. We’ve seen that with JV [Villeneuve]. We’ve had people from all over the place ask about how to watch the races. It’s just going to grow awareness and cultivate some new sponsorship opportunities.”
Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell says the changes in the sport and the broadening of perspective in the garage area “take us up another notch. I think it will be good, especially with the quality of drivers we’re attracting. It can’t hurt. I’m pleased to see it. These guys have the names. They’re proven winners. That carries a lot of clout.”
Although Montoya’s credentials were not in question when he crossed the bridge from Formula One to NASCAR, that move still was a leap of faith of sorts for Ganassi. Now that leap has turned into a flood of kangaroos.
“Somebody had to be the guinea pig, just like Rick Hendrick had to be the guinea pig with Jeff Gordon,” says Elliott Sadler, who will be Carpentier’s teammate at Gillett Evernham Motorsports. “Nobody would ever hire a young guy to come to this sport, and Rick Hendrick was kind of the first guy to do that. He hired Gordon and took that chance and, wow, has that paid off.
“Ganassi pretty much went out on a limb, hired Montoya and has had great success. He’s won a race and has done very well, so these other guys are saying, ‘Hey, if he can do it, with the same background as me, I can do it, as well.’”
AJ Allmendinger was part of last year’s “class” of open-wheel transfers. He suffered through a tough learning year with Toyota’s Red Bull team. Asked what he would tell this year’s group of open-wheel drivers arriving on NASCAR shores, he says, “Nothing. I want them to live with the pain I’ve had to live with this year. But I would tell them to get ready for the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life. And it is. You can’t even begin to describe it.”
– Associate Editor Jeff Gluck contributed to this story.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- AJ Allmendinger
Comments
2 responses to "Wave of open-wheel stars will raise NASCAR’s profile, but can they find success, acceptance in sport?"
Nina Leshley said:
Feb 24, 2008 at 10:45 AMI have openwheel racing for years just as I have nascar. These guys are great drivers, great people and I am glad to see them in Nascar.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportNina Leshley said:
Mar 17, 2008 at 4:59 PMI have openwheel racing for years just as I have nascar. These guys are great drivers, great people and I am glad to see them in Nascar.
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This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.
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