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Tag: Jacques Villeneuve

  • Larson wins first Daytona 500 pole, teammate Bowman completes front row grid

    Larson wins first Daytona 500 pole, teammate Bowman completes front row grid

    Kyle Larson picked up right where he left off from the previous season and saved his best for last after the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, claimed the pole position for the 64th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday, February 16.

    The qualifying format that determined the front row of this year’s Daytona 500 was based on two single-car qualifying sessions, each comprised of a single-lap qualifying session for each competitor, where the top-10 fastest qualifiers from a total of 42, transferred from the first to the second round and contended for the pole position.

    Larson, who was the second-to-last competitor to roll his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the track to post a qualifying lap through the first and second sessions, secured the pole position with a pole-winning time at 49.680 seconds at 181.159 mph. With his accomplishment, Larson, who notched his 11th Cup Series career pole, became the 44th different competitor to win the pole for the Great American Race and the first pole winner in the new Next Gen stock cars as he seeks his first 500 victory this weekend. The 500 pole award also was the 15th for Hendrick Motorsports and the 31st overall, 10th in a row, for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    “Yeah, it’s really neat,” Larson said on FS1. “You are really proud of your team to get a pole here because this is the littlest it has to do with us drivers; qualifying at superspeedways. Just a huge thank you to the engine shop at Hendrick Motorsports. Everybody who’s had a part in touching these vehicles; whether it be on the computer, engineering, or just hands-on. It’s really neat. Just awesome the speed in our HendrickCars.com Chevy. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a really good weekend…I think it just be even more special if we could win the Duels tomorrow and go on Sunday and win the [Daytona] 500.”

    Joining Larson on the front row will be teammate Alex Bowman, who made history by claiming his record-setting fifth consecutive front-row starting spot for the 500 as Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors swept the front row for the 500 for the seventh time in 13 seasons. Bowman, the reigning two-time Daytona 500 pole winner, posted the second-fastest qualifying time of 49.711 seconds at 181.046 mph in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    “It’s unbelievable,” Bowman said. “I’ve come down here not locked in, qualified poorly, had to race our way in. It just says so much about Hendrick Motorsports and all these guys. Congrats to [Larson] on getting the pole. It’s cool to be like to have the record, but I feel like [crew chief] Greg Ives and my race team should be the ones that should get the credit for that record because the driver doesn’t really have much to do with it, but glad I didn’t mess it up for them and really happy for Ally and Chevrolet. Cool to be a part of it. We’ve found out every way to lose a 500, so hopefully, we can figure out how to win in on Sunday.”

    William Byron, the 2019 Daytona 500 pole winner, posted the third-fastest qualifying time of 49.711 seconds at 180.850 mph in his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Aric Almirola, the fastest non-HMS competitor who commenced his swan song season as a full-time NASCAR competitor by posting the fourth-fastest qualifying time of 49.854 seconds at 180.529 mph in his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang. Chase Elliott settled in fifth place with the fifth-fastest qualifying time of 49.913 seconds at 180.314 mph, thus placing all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors in the top five.

    Rounding out the top 10 in qualifying time and speed were Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and rookie Harrison Burton.

    Daniel Hemric, the reigning Xfinity Series champion who was the first competitor to roll off the grid and was one of 32 competitors that did not transfer to the second qualifying round, posted the 11th-fastest qualifying time of 50.160 seconds at 179.429 mph ahead of Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon.

    Meanwhile, Noah Gragson and Jacques Villeneuve were also left victorious after both raced their way into the Daytona 500 after emerging as the fastest two qualifiers competing for non-chartered teams.

    Gragson, a five-time Xfinity Series race winner who failed to qualify for the 2021 Daytona 500 after being collected in a late multi-car wreck during the second Daytona Duel event, posted the 33rd-fastest qualifying time of 50.689 seconds at 177.553 mph, which was enough for him and his No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team to emerge as the fastest of the non-chartered competitors and teams on the leaderboard. With his accomplishment, Gragson will make his debut in NASCAR’s premier series and in the Great American Race this upcoming weekend.

    “It’s pretty special,” Gragson said. “We have one employee [at Beard Motorsports] with [crew chief] Darren Shaw. We have a lot of help from [Richard Childress Racing] and a great power unit under the hood with ECR. The Beard family, Mrs. Beard and the rest of the family, they allowed me to come drive this race car. [Brendan Gaughan] called me about a year and a half ago, he asked me to come drive this car, and we came up short last year. To be able to make my first Cup start on Sunday, it’s really special. We were the fastest out of all the open cars, so that’s pretty good. [I’m] Gonna be busy this year with JR Motorsports and now the Beard Motorsports’ car this weekend, so super excited, super thankful, and just very proud.”

    Villeneuve, who made his return to the Cup Series for the newly formed Team Hezeberg, posted the 36th-fastest qualifying time of 51.010 seconds at 176.436 mph as he guaranteed himself a starting spot for the 500 based on his speed. With his accomplishment, the 50-year-old Quebec veteran will be making his first Cup career start since competing at Sonoma Raceway in June 2013 and his first career start in the Daytona 500.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Obviously, it’s not a win,” Villeneuve said. “It’s not like winning the Indy 500 or the [Formula One] championship. But at this point in my career, the last time I tried to qualify here was 14 years ago, just to make the show is incredible. Because we’re a small team, we didn’t link up with a big team to get the car ready, and it’s highly unexpected to be able to make it on time. So it ranks right after these big wins.”

    The remaining four open competitors that includes Kaz Grala, Greg Biffle, J.J. Yeley and Timmy Hill will compete for the final two open spots for the Daytona 500 through the Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday night.

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule are a pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona International Speedway that will determine the rest of the starting lineup for this year’s 64th running of the Daytona 500 scheduled for February 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. The first Bluegreen Vacations Duel will occur on Thursday, February 17, at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 while the second Bluegreen Vacations Duel will occur approximately two hours later at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Sonoma Toyota Save Mart 350

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Sonoma Toyota Save Mart 350

    Under unexpected cloudy skies and even some rain drops, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 25th annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

    Surprising:  Martin Truex Jr. was in surprisingly esteemed company with his 218-race winless streak, the second longest in the Cup Series to Bill Elliott’s 226-race winless streak.

    But Truex managed to avoid that number one winless record spot by grabbing the brass ring on the road course, attaining his second career victory, his first at Sonoma, and his first of the season.

    And according to the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, the win marks the beginning of the new winning Truex.

    “I can’t even put it into words,” Truex said in Victory Lane. “I have so many people to thank who have stuck with me.”

    “The team is just phenomenal,” Truex continued. “It feels damn good to get one finally.”

    “Today was just our day and our time,” Truex said. “Our car was flawless.”

    “We’re going to get a bunch of them now, I can tell you that much.”

    Not Surprising:  The remainder of the MWR Race team also had a good day at the race track, with Clint Bowyer, defending Sonoma winner, finishing fifth in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota and Brian Vickers, fresh off his sixth place Nationwide finish at Road America, finishing 13th in the No. 55 RKMotorsCharlotte.com Toyota.

    “We had a fast car all weekend long,” Bowyer said. “We got close but we pitted and nobody came with us.”

    “A long time coming for Martin and happy to see him in Victory Lane.”

    MWR driver Vickers may not have had quite the finish he wanted but he got something even more important, a ringing endorsement from his team owner Michael Waltrip after the race.

    “We want Brian Vickers to be a part of this organization in the future,” Waltrip said after the race. “He’s our guy.”

    “We’re trying to put the pieces together.”

    Surprising:  Jeff Gordon, who had an eventful day of having to overcome a pitting too early penalty, also achieved a surprising record of his own.

    This was the Gordon’s 302nd career top-five finish, breaking the tie he had for third with Hall of Fame driver David Pearson.

    “This is one of those crazy types of races where pit strategy goes all over the place and you never know what might happen,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said.  “The way things have been going on the track for me haven’t been great and they way things have been going with the calls haven’t been going his (crew chief Alan Gustafson’s) way either.”

    “But wow, we finally had a race car that was fantastic,” Gordon continued. “We had a lot of fun out there.”

    This was Gordon’s 17th top-10 finish in 21 races at Sonoma.

    Not Surprising:  Carl Edwards started where he finished, third and third, in his No. 99 Aflac Ford. This was his fourth top-10 finish in nine races at Sonoma and he was officially the highest finishing Ford in the race.

    “I would have liked to have made a couple spots up,” Edwards said. “It feels weird to race that hard all day and finish in the same spot you started.”

    “That’s the true story,” Edwards continued. “It was a pretty dynamic race.”

    “Eventually we will win one of these races.”

    Even with his third place start and finish, Edwards remains in the second place in the point standings, 25 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

    Surprising:  Kurt Busch was, by his own admission, surprisingly fast both on and off the track. He endured not one but two pit road speeding penalties , and in spite of that managed to claw his way back to the fourth finishing position in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet.

    “Yeah, we were fast, even on pit road, twice,” Busch said. “I messed up, flat out.”

    “I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times,” Busch continued. “I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road.”

    “But man this Furniture Row Chevy was fast.”

    Not Surprising:   Juan Pablo Montoya had a fast race car but that was not quite enough to finish the Sonoma race. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet needed some additional gas in his vehicle, running out on the last lap and dropping from the front of the field to a 34th place finish.

    “It’s just heartbreak,” Montoya said. “Our Target Chevy was really good today.”

    “You’ve got to defend them in the way they do the fuel calculations,” Montoya continued. “It should have been a little smarter.”

    “We’ve got tools to prevent things like that from happening.”

    Surprising:  Kyle Busch, who finished 35th in his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota after contact with both Montoya and Edwards sent him spinning, took to Twitter to battle those who were criticizing him.

    His first tweet of “Awww. My heart melts for @jpmontoya who ran out of gas. Only thing I got for Carl is “aww crap,” sent the tweet war off and running with some of his followers.

    After a few barbs back and forth, however, Busch showed his more jovial side, ending the Twitter visit with “Brought to u in part by mms. LOL” in response to this tweet @queers4gears: Does @KyleBusch’s twitter feed come with popcorn? #Entertainment.

    Not Surprising:  Most likely the two most disappointed drivers at Sonoma were those that started on the front row. Jamie McMurray had a great pole run only to finish 25th due to a flat tire and damage, while Marcos Ambrose, who had tested at Sonoma and qualified on the outside pole, salvaged a seventh place finish.

    “It’s OK,” the driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford said. “We got a top-10 out of it.”

    “The weather cooled down and lot and we just didn’t anticipate that when we set the car up,” Ambrose continued. “Of course I wanted to win but that’s the way it goes.”

    Surprising:  There were two surprising engine issues right at the start in the race. Bobby Labonte, in the No. 47 Kingsford Toyota, did not even make a lap before his engine expired.

    Joining him was Jacques Villeneuve, who made it to Lap 19 before having his No. 51 Tag Heuer Avant-Garde Eyewear Chevrolet pushed into the garage with gear and engine woes.

    Not Surprising:  While Danica Patrick supposed that she was comfortable at Sonoma in that she at least knew where the ladies’ restrooms were, she finished a very uncomfortable 29th in her No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet.

    “It was a long day – a long weekend,” Patrick said. “We just couldn’t get the car to the point where I was comfortable with it.”

    “Having the cut tire and going into the tire barrier was just sort of salt in the wound,” Patrick continued. “Hopefully we have a better weekend next week at Kentucky.”

    Surprising:  Rookie Paulie Harraka, attempting his first Cup start in his No. 52 Hasa Pool Products Ford, had a surprisingly difficult start to the race, wrecking as the cars went out on track for the pace laps.

    “I don’t know what to say except that stuff happens,” Harraka said. “Somebody two cars ahead of me decided to stop in the go lane and why he did that I have absolutely no idea, but these cars don’t stop very well on the wet asphalt.”

    “Sometimes crazy stuff happens.”

    Not Surprising:  While Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not have scored a top-ten finish, he was still smiling after Sonoma with a 12th place finish at a road course which admittedly is not his forte.

    “It was a pretty good day,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet said. “This is definitely my worst race track, my least favorite track.”

    “We will take a top-15 here any week.”

     

  • Canadian stars shoot for victory in Montreal

    Canadian stars shoot for victory in Montreal

    [media-credit name=”nascar.com” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Skimming through the entry list for this weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal one may find a few names that jump off the page.  What do Ron Fellows, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Tagliani, and Patrick Carpentier all have in common this weekend?  They are all accomplished road course racers that venture into the NASCAR scene on rare occasion.  When the Nationwide Series makes its annual stop in Montreal, the four aforementioned drivers come to make an attempt at winning in their home country.

    Carpentier has returned from retirement for the NAPA Auto Parts 200 on August 18th, competing again in Michael Waltrip Racing’s #99 NAPA Toyota Camry entered by RAB Racing.  The five time CART winner has seen varying success at his home track.  In the inaugural running of the race in 2007, Carpentier grabbed the pole and finished 2nd.  The following year, Carpentier earned another runner-up finish at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

    The next three races in Canada saw the Quebec native encounter misfortunes.  In 2009, Carpentier finished 38th due to engine troubles.  In 2010 and 2011, the MWR driver came across the start finish line 32nd, both due to mechanical troubles.

    Carpentier enters the weekend not only looking to turn his bad luck around, but to obtain an elusive victory in front of his home fans.

    Jacques Villeneuve has competed around the circuit named after his late father ten times in Formula 1, none of which the 41 year-old Canadian was able to achieve victory.  Though Villeneuve has been exceptional in qualifying for the Montreal race (three top-five starts in four attempts), he has an average finish in Montreal of 12.5 on the circuit that lays along the St. Lawrence river.  Driving the #22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger owned by Roger Penske brings high expectations for Jacques.

    “I feel, after winning the pole last year at Montreal,  that we can have a lot of success. A NASCAR victory is something I want.”  Villeneuve says of his potential with Penske Racing.

    With the IZOD IndyCar Series being off this weekend, Alex Tagliani is taking the opportunity to race for a third time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.  In only having two NASCAR Nationwide Series starts in Montreal, Tagliani has experienced both good and bad performances. In 2009, the 39 year-old Montreal native finished 26th for MacDonald Motorsports.  In last year’s event, Tagliani capitalized on his Penske Racing ride to finish 2nd.

    This year “Tag” will be racing Turner Motorsport’s #30 Chevrolet.

    “I’m always proud to come back to Montreal and to be able to race on this fantastic road course named after one of my all-time racing heroes, Gilles Villeneuve.”  Tagliani says when speaking to nascar.com.

    “Montreal has been good to me to date and I’m hoping to better my racing history here.  Having a competitive car to challenge for the win is all I can wish for. ”

    Back in June, the #30 Turner Motorsports team went to victory lane on the first road course race of the season at Road America.  Nelson Piquet Jr. piloted the car to victory that day earning his first ever NASCAR Nationwide Series victory, Tagliani will look to mimic Piquet’s feat this weekend.

    After claiming a victory on his home soil in the 2008 rain shortened iteration of the NAPA Auto Parts 200,  Ron Fellows has seen a streak of bad luck come his way.  The year after his victory Fellows failed to complete the race due to a crash in turns 8 and 9, yielding him a 35th place finish.  In 2010, the Ontario Native experienced engine troubles and placed 30th in his home race.

    With the highest of highs and lowest of lows making up the 52 year olds past in a Nationwide car at Montreal, Fellows is gunning for a new high in his Nationwide Career.  Adding a second victory in his home country would provide the road course specialist with just that.

    In the five year history of the NAPA Auto Parts 200, only Ron Fellows has earned the thunderous applause of his home country’s crowd by going to victory lane.  Ironically, of the four Canadian stars heading into this weekend’s race, Ron Fellows is the only one born outside of the province of Quebec.

    For the diehard Canadian race fans, a keen eye will be on all Canadian’s participating in Montreal this weekend, but only a victory from a Canadian road course star from inside the borders of Quebec will prove to be a moment of true greatness for them.

  • Disappointing ending but Patrick made presence known in Road America

    Disappointing ending but Patrick made presence known in Road America

    [media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”251″][/media-credit]It was right there for the taking for Danica Patrick. Her first top five finish of the season and career tying best finish.

    And it was taken – away by someone else. Patrick was running fourth on the last lap of the Sargento 200 at Road America, having passed Max Papis, when Jacques Villeneuve hit her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet square on the rear bumper. It was enough contact to send her off into the gravel pit and out of contention.

    Instead of the finish she was looking for, and certainly deserved, she was credited with 12th place. On the cool down lap headed back to pit road, Patrick expressed her displeasure not only with Villeneuve but with the day’s racing in general. Things like dive-bombing, the unnecessary roughness and contact from Villeneuve.

    Then she told her team on the course of events that took her out, “I could have [chickened] out and finished fifth or tried to pass him. I tried to pass him.”

    When she finally saw the replay of what had happened, she was a little more subdued. But not less disappointed in the result.

    “I’m going to start off with a positive, I ran top five all day,” she told ESPN. “I took the lead for a brief moment until I learned my lesson down into turn five when you try to get a little bit more out of the brake zone.

    “So, that’s the bummer, that we weren’t able to finish that off and finish off with a top five like I feel like we all deserved. The guys in the pits did a great job, they were awesome and Tony Jr. [crew chief] gave me a good car and it just would have been good to get a good result.”

    Everyone knew she was there though. According to ESPN statistics, she ran in the top five for 35 of 50 laps, 70 percent of the race. While road racing has never been her greatest strength, it’s not something that she’s terrible at either. In her first NASCAR road race at Montreal last season she ran top 10 before having brake and mechanical failures end her day.

    When she ran in the IndyCar Series she was a contender too. She earned a second place finish at Belle Isle near Detroit back in 2007. Saturday was more of the same, when most thought she’d never be in the picture, she hardly left it.

    That was until she was moved out of the way. Patrick held back when it came to what happened with Villeneuve, knowing her racing spoke louder than words.

    “People sort of say I don’t get good results but today I ran well and I feel like lately we’ve been running much better we just haven’t finished the deal and gotten the results,” said Patrick.

    “I don’t know, y’all can make a decision for yourself what you think happened there.”

    Villeneuve is no stranger to controversy. He’s made a lot of contact with fellow drivers over the years, including last season at Road America. It’s left a sour taste in many mouths of those in the sport, last year Sprint Cup driver Kevin Harvick tweeted that he hoped Max Papis, who was then driving a KHI car, “punches his dumbass in the mouth.”

    Saturday afternoon it was more of the same from around the garage. Even those who are normally critical of Patrick were hoping she and her team were fired up after the race. Eury Jr. was at least, stopping Villeneuve on pit road to give him his two cents. But whatever Eury said, fell on Villeneuve’s deaf ears and different point of view.

    “Well we have nothing to do together. When I was behind Danica and [Max] Papis was on the outside, maybe he didn’t know I was there but down the straight he pushed me in the grass just where we hit the brakes,” was Villeneuve’s explanation.

    “So when I jumped on the brakes I was in the grass because of that, I wasn’t right next to him. I couldn’t slow down because of that.”

    And on what Eury said, “It’s just about that there was contact and I was involved. But it has nothing to do with me so I really don’t care.”

    The good news for Patrick is that Villeneuve is not entered in next weekend’s event in Kentucky. The NNS returns to the ovals and Daytona is just around the corner, where Patrick made huge strides last season. She and the No. 7 GoDaddy team continue to make gains, her knowledge expanding and results starting to show.

    And even though she didn’t finish where she was looking to on Saturday, she moved back into the top 10 in points. Not bad for a driver who said she didn’t care about the points when she entered the weekend.

  • Road Course Veterans Lead First Nationwide Series Practice at Road America

    Road Course Veterans Lead First Nationwide Series Practice at Road America

    At the end of the first Nationwide Series practice at Road America, it was a bunch of road course ringers leading the charts.

    [media-credit name=”roadamerica.com” align=”alignright” width=”215″][/media-credit]Billy Johnson, driving the No. 60 for Roush-Fenway Racing, was at the top with a speed of 108.050 mph (134.871 seconds). RFR brought Johnson over from the Roush Racing Grand-Am Sport team, where he competes in the No. 61 Ford Boss 302R Mustang with Jack Roush Jr. The last race ran was at Walkins Glen, where they led 30 laps in route to victory.

    Jacques Villeneuve, driving the No. 22 for Penske Racing, was second with a speed of 107.996 mph (134.938). Villeneuve has driven road course in a variety of different cars, including F1, Le Mans Series, Speedcar and TRV6. He has also raced in NASCAR before, as he has made a total of five Nationwide Series starts, dating back to 2006.

    “Road America is one of my favorite tracks and I’m super excited to be returning there this weekend to race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” Villeneuve said coming into the weekend. “I was fighting for the win in last year’s race so I have some unfinished business at this event, for sure. This will be my first event both in the No. 22 Discount Tire/Ruby Tuesday Dodge Challenger, and with Penske Racing, so I’m really looking forward to getting in the car and seeing what we can achieve together. It’s a track I know and love, having won the Indy car races there in ’94 and ’95, so we should be very competitive.”

    During those past five starts, he has three top-five starts and three top-10 finishes.

    “Road America is the longest track on our schedule with long straights and big braking zones that give one of the best road racers, Jacque Villeneuve, lots of opportunities to get the Discount Tire Dodge out front,” crew chief Todd Gordon said. “We have tested with Jacques a couple of times and had good speeds as a result of the testing. We feel we have a good package to unload with and build from for this circuit. The challenges of having to turn both ways and stop well are something this whole No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge team looks forward to.”

    Sprint Cup Series driver and past road course expert Michael McDowell (driving the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing) was third (107.972 mph, 134.968 seconds) with Max Papis fourth (107.641 mph, 135.384 seconds).

    Papis will driving the No. 33 for Kevin Harvick Incorporated. They teamed up last year for Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where Papis qualified ninth and second. Papis has previous experience at Road America through the Champ Car Series, where he collected several podium finishes.

    “I am really looking forward to racing this weekend at Road America,” Papis said in the team preview. “This will be my first NASCAR race there so I will be considered a rookie, but it will not be my first race at the track. I spent a lot of time at Road America and in the Milwaukee and Green Bay area when I raced in the Champ Car Series. It is a great track and the area is beautiful. They have awesome fans. I can’t wait to get there and race.”

    Elliott Sadler was the highest series regular in fifth (107.566 mph, 135.478 seconds), followed by Ron Fellows, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jason Leftler, Trevor Bayne and Justin Allgaier.

    The Nationwide Series has another practice at 4:30pm EST today with qualifying slated for Saturday at 3:05pm EST. The race will follow on Saturday at 5:30pm EST.