Villeneuve meets approval for NASCAR's COT test

NASCAR neophyte Jacques Villeneuve said he's still enthralled with testing following a 243-mile day Wednesday at Kentucky Speedway. Thursday he received NASCAR's approval to do the manufacturers' Car of Tomorrow test next week at Talladega Superspeedway.

The steps are the latest in the former Indy car and Formula One world champion's journey toward his NASCAR debut, planned for the Craftsman Truck Series' Smith Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 22.

"Oh yeah -- it's the most interesting testing I've done in a while because I'm learning a lot," Villeneuve said on his drive to the airport. "It's a whole new ballgame and I have to learn a lot, so testing is fun.

'Impressive' debut

When Jacques Villeneuve tested a truck for Bill Davis Racing, Slugger Labbe was left with a positive impression.

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• Villeneuve to join BDR for '08

"Any time something new happens it's great, so getting in those [stock] cars and driving on the ovals has been a great experience."

Villeneuve will next test a Car of Tomorrow with Bill Davis Racing driver Dave Blaney next Monday and Tuesday at Talladega.

Team owner Bill Davis has talked of having Villeneuve do the ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Talladega next month. An ARCA test is scheduled at Talladega's 2.66-mile oval on Sept. 24-25.

Villeneuve got his first taste of NASCAR from the driver's seat in a No. 27 BDR truck over two days at Chicagoland Speedway last week. Wednesday, according to crew chief Slugger Labbe, he did 162 additional laps on Kentucky's 1.5-mile layout in a Toyota Car of Tomorrow.

Last week Labbe had predicted the COT's performance would be more of what the former open-wheel standout had expected in NASCAR, and Villeneuve confirmed it.

"I think he was right, [the COT] was very different from the truck," Villeneuve said. "It took a little bit to adjust, but once we got the car dialed in, it was very nice to drive.

"You just need to work your way around it. Once you have the balance, any car becomes fun to drive -- but it seemed to be more difficult to get it dialed in, so you need to do more work and it's more driver-dependent. So you need to slow down more and brake a little more to get down into the corner, so there's more driving involved, but I think it's good."

Labbe, who spoke of his latest rookie in glowing terms last week, had more of the same to say driving away from Kentucky.

"He did a good job," Labbe said. "It would have been easy to get frustrated at the start, but he stayed with it and kept working on it and made good changes and at the end of the test it was a fun car to drive, so that was good. I'm glad we came.

"We've run right at 600 miles of testing with him and it's been very enjoyable, so that's real promising."

Villeneuve agreed.

"The stuff that we worked on [Thursday] made sense, so I'm happy about that," Villeneuve said. "Most of it did, anyway. I'm still finding my way a little bit, but most of the things we changed on the car reacted in a logical way."

Villeneuve said that's been the pleasantest surprise for him.

"You hear so many things before coming here and you hear negatives, they all say it's a heavy car and so on," Villeneuve said. "So you really don't think you'll enjoy it. But after the first few laps, you find out it's a real racecar and once you get it dialed in you can really drive it hard and precisely, so it's actually a fun racecar to drive."

And at least to this point, Villeneuve said he's managed not to shock himself.

"No, no -- I didn't get anything scary happen to me yet, in three days of testing," Villeneuve said, laughing. "I'm sure it will happen, but I'm not sure yet what it means to get a scary moment. It feels like it would hurt a lot less than it did back then in the Indy cars, so that's a good thing."

And Labbe confirmed that was exactly his plan at this stage of his charge's development.

"The more laps he runs the better he gets," Labbe said. "He hasn't had a loose condition yet, with the truck or the COT. We've been fighting tight, or understeer, as he calls it, just trying to get the vehicle freed up.

"We've got it comfortable for him to drive and really haven't had any situations yet. You couldn't tell if it was him driving or Dave Blaney or Jimmie Johnson."

On Wednesday, Labbe said he did get to make a head-to-head comparison with Hendrick Motorsports test driver David Green, who was also there for the day.

"We were on different tires most of the day, so there was really no basis to compare, but then we borrowed a set of tires from them that had a fair amount of laps on them, just to let him see the difference in the tires," Labbe said. "And there was a big difference in the times. At the end, he ran comparable [lap times] to David, so that was all we could ask for."

Ultimately, most everyone considers Villeneuve's process a series of baby steps, including the final seven Truck Series races this season, to potentially prepare him for a possible attempt at the 2008 Sprint Cup schedule. That process might include the 2007 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"If it could happen it would be great," Villeneuve said, "because it would be good to get a race done before next season starts, so it's no surprise when it gets to the first race. But right now the plan is to get as much [testing] mileage as possible."

Juan Montoya, another former Formula One driver who raced against Villeneuve, made his initial Cup start at Homestead last season and was involved in a crash.

Villeneuve said he could see plusses and minuses to getting familiar with his competition ahead of time.

"It is important to know the drivers you're racing against," Villeneuve said after pausing to consider his response. "But sometimes when you don't know you'll do something that you might not have done and it might work out.

"So it's not always good to know everyone around. But the way NASCAR works, I think it's better to know the drivers, because it seems there's a lot going on in the races."

Villeneuve had the last laugh when he said he wasn't sure of his plans to attend any races before he actually competes in one.

"Probably, but right now I don't know," he said. "There's a million other things to do."