Villeneuve 'impressive' in first test driving for BDR (cont'd)

"The difficult thing was that everyone was on different tires, so all we did was compare JV with Mike Skinner, because they were on the same tire. [Villeneuve] was surprised at how much grip the trucks had, and how well they turned, because he figured they wouldn't turn very well."

Villeneuve is set to test again with BDR in a Toyota Car of Tomorrow next week at Kentucky Speedway.

"I told him the Car of Tomorrow next week will pretty much be everything that he thought," Labbe said. "The trucks have more downforce and a bigger spoiler and you're able to do more on a truck than you are with a Car of Tomorrow, so I'm sure next week at Kentucky it'll open his eyes pretty good.

"But it is what it is. The Car of Tomorrow is our future and we've just got to get him comfortable with it. I've done a lot of things in racing, but having a guy from Formula One on a racetrack for the first time was a pretty neat experience, to see how well and how fast he adapted. It just goes to show you, if there's a good racecar driver out there, it won't take him long to adapt, because it didn't take JV long to figure that out."

Monday was Labbe's first day working with Villeneuve, with whom he hopes to make the Canadian's Truck Series debut at Las Vegas next month, his ARCA RE/MAX Series debut at Talladega Superspeedway in October and possibly his Nextel Cup debut by the Homestead finale in November.

"We have to teach him all the dos and don'ts of NASCAR," Labbe said. "Like pit-road speed -- all the things that people take for granted, and that drivers are supposed to know, but with Jacques being a rookie to NASCAR, he's got to learn all these things."

Villeneuve, who won the CART Indy car championship and the Indianapolis 500 in 1995, before moving to Formula One, where he won the World Championship in 1997, had his aggressive schedule confirmed by owner Davis last weekend at Bristol.

After one day of testing, Labbe said he was thrilled to be along for the ride.

"Flying [to Chicago] there were three things I was concerned about, to be honest with you," Labbe said. "One, was he going to be competitive, and obviously, before too long he was up to speed and he was competitive, so that was a check.

"The second thing was the information that he would relay back to us. Was he just going to say 'I'm loose' and that's it, or how descriptive was he going to be. He was pretty darned impressive. He would start you at the entry of the corner and walk you all the way through it -- then you could go look at the Pi data on the computer and it was almost exactly what he was saying. So it was amazing how really, really smart this guy was.

"And the third thing was, is that most drivers drive straight into the corner [because] they're afraid to arc it out and get a nice run down to the center of the corner. On his second lap, he was taking arcs wider than Jack Sprague and Skinner -- he was pretty aggressive from the get-go and he's got no fear, and that's the thing that's impressive.

"He's not intimidated by nothing and he adapted really well, real quick -- and he understands it. He's probably not going to go to Vegas and sit on the pole and win the race -- but I feel he'll probably do a good job there. We haven't done important things like running in traffic and doing pit stops, but right now, he's pretty impressive."