Villeneuve shows speed on first day of testing at Daytona

NASCAR drivers were testing for the first time this year at Daytona International Speedway and Jacques Villeneuve begun his rookie season with a strong performance. First, in the morning session, Villeneuve tested 2 cars which he placed 4th and 15th out of 42 entered with a best lap of 49.092 seconds averaging 183.329 mph.

In the afternoon, Villeneuve then placed 6th and 20th, shaving about 2 tenths of a second off his times.

Jacques Villeneuve moves on to his first short track race

After riding the high banks of the longest track of the NASCAR circuit at Talladega Speedway two weeks ago, Jacques Villeneuve now takes on the challenge of the shortest one at Martinsville Speedway. Villeneuve's name is seen once again in the Craftsman Truck Series entry list in the #27 truck for Bill Davis Racing. Villeneuve will be at his 3rd CTS' race and his 4th start behind the wheel of a stock-car.

The race will be shown live on Speed TV this Saturday at 2:30 PM

NASCAR veterans unhappy about Villeneuve's decision

Jacques Villeneuve was certainly not expected a warm welcome from the NASCAR stars and it's exactly what he received.

Jeff Gordon was quoted this week saying : "I don't agree with it, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it either.
"Jacques did a nice job at the (Talladega) test, but you can't base anything on a test. I mean, that's just crazy. . . I think you need to get some experience in something else before you go stick them in the Cup race at Talladega, especially when it's so crucial for the championship." Gordon refers to the fact that Villeneuve's Nextel Cup debut will be on the fastest track of the circuit, right in the middle of the Chase for the championship.

Kyle Busch had about the same reaction : "He's doing what? [...] Holy cow, that's not good."

After the controversy, NASCAR reaffirmed their decision to allow Villeneuve to run the race since he passed all the criterias they were looking for.

Villeneuve will enter Nextel Cup race at Talladega

After successful tests at Talladega in Nextel and ARCA cars and a clean race in the Truck series at Las Vegas, Jacques Villeneuve was allowed by NASCAR yesterday to run races on super speedways. On the same day, it was announced Jacques would enter the Nextel race at Talladega on October 7. Villeneuve was already entered in the ARCA and Trucks race but it was also announced Villeneuve would not run the ARCA race because he would be too busy on that weekend.

Villeneuve will have to fight his way through qualifying for the race as the car entered is not in the top 35 in the owners standings. Villeneuve commented it would be a good place to try to qualifying as it was not so much about driving but keeping your foot down and hoping the engine and the car are fast.

That race at 'Dega will be the first time a COT race is held on a super speedway.

Carpentier close to a deal with GEM

The Canadian Press reported today Patrick Carpentier would be close to a deal with Gillett Evernham Motorsport(GEM) for a NASCAR ride. Robert Desrosiers, Carpentier's representative, told that, they don't have a contract or a racing schedule yet but are sure about one thing : Patrick will be testing with GEM pretty soon, probably as soon as Kentucky next week. He then added : "I believe that after the tests, I think all of the cards are going to fall in place and we'll have more of a definite schedule on what Patrick's going to do this season [...] There are still quite a few races left in Busch and Nextel Cup and it's going to be up to Mr. Evernham and Mr. Gillett to see where they want to put Patrick."

No Le Mans ride for Villeneuve in 2008?

René Fagnan from Auto123.com had talks recently with Peugeot representatives where he was told Jacques Villeneuve would not be driving in the 2008 Le Mans 24 hours. The Peugeot representative said "Jacques told us that, if he didn't have a NASCAR ride for 2008, he'd do Le Mans with us again. [...] It all went very well last June. Serge Saulnier, team boss, chooses the drivers and hasn't confirmed anything for next season. There were some contacts with Villeneuve but if he runs the whole 2008 schedule like it seems, it's clear it is going to be very difficult to run Le Mans. If it wasn't so, he surely would have found a seat with us"

Villeneuve ran the 2007 Le Mans 24 hours for Peugeot this year and was running 2nd place with co-drivers Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian when their engine died with 90 minutes to go

Carpentier and Samax splits

It looks like Patrick Carpentier won't be driving for SAMAX in the Rolex Daytona Prototypes anymore this year. Philippe Crépeau from Radio-Canada.ca learned that the partnership ended on the night of the Watkins Glen race on August 10th. "The team didn't have the money to pay me. They already owe me a lot so we decided to stop it there" said Carpentier. He then added : "I will not lose time on that. I don't really feel like it. It sad that it happened but life goes on. We are looking forward now. I'm focusing on NASCAR

Villeneuve is approved by NASCAR for COT test

They're were little reasons to believe otherwise but NASCAR announced today they approved Jacques Villeneuve's participation in the manufacturer's test that will be run at Talladega next week. Villeneuve will run the Car Of Tomorrow (COT) car alongside other NEXTEL regulars on the 2.66 mile super speedway.

Team owner Bill Davis also talked about having Villeneuve run the ARCA tests at Talladega on Sept. 24th and 25th (in was stated earlier this week that he would be running the ARCA race there on Oct. 5th)

The timing is right

After reading the news in the past couple of days, I realized one thing : The Flying Frenchmen are back into motorsport. Take a good look around around you'll see them everywhere, drivers from Quebec are invading the motorsport scene once again. After Jacques Villeneuve left F1, Patrick Carpentier lost his IRL ride and Andrew Ranger leaving ChampCar, one could easily think the dream was over but now, we've got Bruno Spengler knocking at the door of Formula One (as a test driver for Dave Richard's new ProDrive adventure) for the next year, Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier (after a great Busch run in Montreal) signing with NASCAR teams to have preparation rides for a full assault next year. We have also seen Kevin Lacroix winning on his first week-end of Champcar Atlantic racing, Jean-François Dumoulin won the GT class at the Daytona 24 hours and Alex Tagliani is still running as good as he can with what he's giving in Champcar.

Only one conclusion is possible, the Flying Frenchmen are back and you'll get every bit of the stories here!