Anyone got $18 million for Jacques?
Evidently undeterred by the breakdown in negotiations to get himself into the Busch series, and ever-determined to make it into NASCAR one way or another, Jacques Villeneuve is making some fine progress in starting up his own team.
The former world champion has reportedly reached an agreement with Roush Racing, Ford's biggest fielder of stock cars, to help him set up his own team. After winning the Indy 500 and the CART title, JV moved to F1, and has raced for half a dozen teams since then. As such, he may have a good scope of how teams are run, but running his own team in NASCAR should present a whole new slew of challenges to the French-Canadian driver.
What the Jacques needs now is more than love, sweet love...he needs to secure $18 million in sponsorship to finance the venture. Certainly not an impossibility for a name like Villeneuve, but any way you cut it, that's a big lump of cash for a series rookie to raise on his own.
[Source: GrandPrix.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Darryl Fallon 4:53PM (12/03/2006)
Good luck mon ami!!!
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theshadow 9:42AM (12/04/2006)
Why would he want to waste his talent on NASCAR when he knows how to go around corners in TWO directions?
NASCAR is more 'entertainment' than serious racing...Jaq, get your 'queue' into an AMLS or FIA GT car and go after LeMans, Daytona or Sebring or something!
Or retire with all those millions and get really fat and tanned somewhere :D
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Prius Power in San Marino 6:30PM (12/03/2006)
We don't race race Formula Un, we race nasQAR!
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MD 8:25PM (12/03/2006)
Hello? Any Canadian companies out there ready to step up? Labatt or Molson would be perfect. C'mon guys give Jacques a break!
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Ralph 9:24PM (12/03/2006)
People with sponsorhip that actually understand NASCAR can't cut it -- even with Roush's help. Wasn't there a guy that had an 88 car and Brown for a sponsor, and couldn't cut it? So a newbie is going to do it -- for 18 million, which is maybe half what the top teams have going for them.
Nah. There's a reason he can't find a ride.
The apparent assumption is that NASCAR is the retirement home for drivers that didn't make it elsewhere. It's not. It's cutthroat.
Mr. Villenuve should retire.
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Tiago do Vale 4:25AM (12/04/2006)
Sure.... even if he is World Champion in F1 and Champ Car, and won the Indy 500, he is no mach for the best pilots of the world driving at Nascar...
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Mandla 9:45AM (12/11/2006)
Villeneuve was one of the founders of the Formula 1 team, British American Racing (BAR). Running an F1 team is way more complicated than running a Nascar team so even if Jacques was peripherally involved in BAR, you'd think he has the requisite experience.
As for Nascar drivers being world class, don't make me laugh. A monkey can drive a car in a circle all day!
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LaughingTooHard 9:25AM (12/04/2006)
#5 did you see Montoya's flaming wreck? Sorry NASCAR is little tougher than you think. It is about finesse, adjustments on the fly and pit stops, not about beating the car to death with tons of technology. Any monkey (except maybe Sato) can drive an F1 car to a win. THAT is why everyone wants out, it is not racing, it is an arms race. In NASCAR you have to leave their ego home when you hit the track. Not easy to do for little Jackie V.
#6 Monkey, huh? So why then does he want in? Excess hair growth? Um, it is not less complicated it is more entertaining to watch. F1 is great on TV, boring as hell in person. Plus all the money they throw into the tech race that is F1 is killing the sport. No one can keep a team running. You obviously drive a Minivan, and even then ONLY when your wife says it is OK. If I am wrong, please name the track, we will rent cars from local provider and loser plays for the other's expenses. Still in Monkey-man?
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Tiago do Vale 11:41AM (12/04/2006)
#7
Please, land on the real world...
No F1 pilot wants to go to NASCAR, unless there's no alternative...
Villeneuve is getting old and out of shape, and Montoya is fast but too unreliable: that's it.
And in case you didn't notice (I belive you did but are just pretending you didn't) Montoya had two, three races in NASCAR? With a car he never really drove, completely different from open wheel single-seaters... And is already doing better than most of the field of guys who never did other thing besides race those cars in their life... And that accident happened because he was nudged from behind. So don't pretend you are stupid to make an argument.
The top of the pilots piramid is, as always F1: the best are there, because they don't do anything besides trying to be there: don't try to dream about a different thing.
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Tom Winch 3:24PM (12/04/2006)
#5. "best pilots of the world driving at Nascar..."
YEAH RIGHT!!! Although there are incredible drivers in NASCAR, F1 & ALMS are way more challenging and take far better drivers to succeed.
#6. "As for Nascar drivers being world class, don't make me laugh. A monkey can drive a car in a circle all day!"
That's incredibly stupid also. It takes quite a bit of real driving talent to compete at the top level in NASCAR.
#7. "Any monkey (except maybe Sato) can drive an F1 car to a win. THAT is why everyone wants out, it is not racing, it is an arms race."
That's almost too ignorant to comment on. F1 is at the top of the game driver wise and technology wise. To say that everyone wants out is not even close to the truth. Montoya knew his days were numbered at McLaren, and Villeneuve was dropped by BMW. They are trying to make the jump to NASCAR because that's the only racing series in the world where Montoya and Villeneuve can make the kind of money they made in F1.
#8. NASCAR is more 'entertainment' than serious racing...Jaq, get your 'queue' into an AMLS or FIA GT car and go after LeMans, Daytona or Sebring or something!
#9. The top of the pilots pyramid is, as always F1: the best are there, because they don't do anything besides trying to be there: don't try to dream about a different thing.
8 & 9 got it right. NASCAR is more for the masses with short attention spans. That's why they have the sponsorship $$$$ to be able to hire top drivers away from other racing series. And the vast majority of the world's up & coming drivers are shooting for F1. The ones that shoot for NASCAR are mainly from the Southeastern US and are not exposed to F1 at an early age, but can see stock cars running at local circle tracks so that's where they set their sights.
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Mike from Scarborough 10:26PM (12/04/2006)
It's all about the Cars.Diffefent series diferent machines,geometry ,braking ,ballast,top speed,torque and so on.All you Idiots who think Circle track racing is easy,well you don't know crap.Just becase an F1 car in over 6 million to build and a Roush car is $500K doesn't make the task any easier...Believe me,,if Car owners thought that monkeys could drive ( Like some on this blog)they would be cheaper than paying millions to some of the drivers.It takes a lot of balls to drive either series for diferent reasons.
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Pab (from Buenos Aires, Argentina) 9:55PM (12/06/2006)
Jacques is the best driver all around the world (with Bruno Senna, Jose "Pechito" Lopez, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. The actual F-1 sucks, bmw is a "traidor" team, the only one thing right in F1 is te "return of Ferrari" after the retirment of sc$mac$er. Nascar is not F1, but is a tremendous series, isn't easy to drive that. If he race in F1, Kart, Nascar, i will follow him!!!
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Button428 8:02PM (1/12/2007)
I think drivers from other kinds of racing(e.g. F1) or even other kinds of sport (e.g. Motocross) should not be allowed to just cross over(into NASCAR) with a little moo-lah and a good repuation. I think they should have to start at the very bottom of the chain and work their way up. Same goes for NASCAR drivers crossing over to F1 or Motocross or even BMX riding for that matter. They shouldn't just be allowed in, IMO. To me, that's like being the head of a big corporation and saying "We're hiring!" and hire some random guy with no knowledge of his new profession,just because he got some money and he's got experience in something similar.. putting him above the people who have been at the corporation for 10 years.
JMO
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