Notebook: Villeneuve makes a surprise road trip

Notebook: Villeneuve makes a surprise road trip
Heads to Loudon to press the flesh, seeking future opportunities in NASCAR By Dave Rodman

Penske Racing Nationwide Series crew chief Todd Gordon was in his hauler last weekend at New Hampshire, working on his race notes for regular driver Brad Keselowski, when he heard someone walk into his trailer's lounge.

It wasn't a mechanic, it wasn't his car chief -- it wasn't even Keselowski. It was a totally unexpected visitor, but the red-framed eyeglasses were a dead giveaway.

It was former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who'd made his Penske debut a few weeks earlier with a near race-winning performance at Road America. "JV's" next outing with Penske is at his hometown race in Montreal, at the track named after his father, the late F1 standout Gilles Villeneuve.

Winning the August race means enough to Villeneuve that, on the spur of the moment, he jumped in his white Audi and made the trip to Loudon to surprise Gordon and dozens of other friends in both NASCAR garages.

"It was cool -- I didn't know he was coming," Gordon said. "I was sitting up in the lounge and in walks Jacques. I was as surprised as you were -- I looked up and saw those red glasses and it was 'Hey, what's up dude?'"

Outside his race cars, Villeneuve is pretty low key. The trip was no big deal, he said. "It's not far, only a four-hour drive, so you might as well do that," Villeneuve said.

"It was good to see the guys again -- since Elkhart Lake -- and to chat a bit, to see what we could do different for Montreal. We were good at Elkhart and we want to be even better in Montreal."

Asked to sum up his experience at Road America -- which included a critical restart violation and a multi-car collision later on -- Villeneuve smiled before giving a one-word answer.

"Exciting," he said. "We were very competitive there and obviously I paid the price for a mistake on a restart, when I tucked-in behind [Michael McDowell]. But I've learned the rule [drivers must maintain their lane until crossing the start/finish line] and obviously that won't happen again. Ultimately that cost us a huge amount."

"At Elkhart, our car was the best under braking and the brakes survived the race, so that was good. We were good in the slow-speed corners -- that's where I was gaining most of my time -- so I think our basic setup is quite all right for Montreal."

With plenty of future racing opportunities on the line, Villeneuve spent considerable time shaking hands and reacquainting himself with many in NASCAR. Not only does he not have a ride for next month's first road course event at Watkins Glen, he's also uncertain what 2012 might bring.

"There's nothing definite," Villeneuve said. "It's the same -- we're just carrying on and all I can hope is the good races get good TV coverage when we do the road courses [and] the sponsors are very happy so that at some point it will inflate into a proper, all-year-round ride.

"The Cup drivers are [at Watkins Glen], so there's not really any seats available in Nationwide. A second car still needs budget and they've got to race every weekend. To build an extra car -- because I wouldn't want to go in a bad car, either -- so to build a second car that's on par with the main car is a lot of work. So they need to look at it seriously if the team is going to do that. It's a lot of work, and obviously it needs the budget."

Right now, Gordon's primary focus is on Montreal, saying he thoroughly enjoys working with Villeneuve.

"He's a dedicated racer and it's fun to deal with him and fun to be around him," Gordon said. "Obviously, performance is something that he's after and I think there's a huge peace to winning that race in Montreal, especially now with the questions about whether we'll have another one.

"I wasn't sure how I was going to handle having a different race car driver for just two races, but that transition, I think, has been pretty fluid."

Fonte: nascar.com

Oh God, é a minha sina, só pode!!! rsrsrs. Os pilotos que sigo sempre dizem, não há nada definido, temos que esperar para ver, há muitas opções, depende de várias coisas, e assim vai... E a Ludy aqui vai levando literalmente o dizer, uma corrida de cada vez, porque é definitivamente o máximo que posso fazer quando o assunto são as carreiras de JV e KR depois da F1. #estesmeusoctetes rsrsrs...

Beijinhos, Ludy