Q&A: Jacques Villeneuve

On Saturday night at Las Vegas, Jacques Villeneuve hopes to join Jim Clark and Mario Andretti as Formula One world champions who have added the title of NASCAR driver to their resume. Villeneuve will witness his first NASCAR race in person from behind the wheel in the Craftsman Truck Series Smith's Las Vegas 350.

Villeneuve plans to run the Sprint Cup full time in 2008 in his family's famous No. 27 for Bill Davis Racing, having completed several test sessions, including the COT test at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month.

Many fans are aware of Villenueve's career highlights -- CART and Formula One championships and winning the 1995 Indianapolis 500 -- but might not be familiar with the son of Canadian legend Gilles Villeneuve, who in addition to his racing career, has recorded a music album released earlier this year.

Q: How would you describe your driving style or your personality to fans who don't know you?

Villeneuve: Unique, I don't know. One thing has always been the human aspect has always been important to me. Even though most of my racing career has been in cars that would be considered technological and I have experience working with an engineer or crew chief, as you say here, was the main focus, using the data to help and not the other way around. That's one thing that's good for NASCAR because there's less reliance on technology. Then I try never to give up, which is useful in racing. It's hard to talk about myself.

Q: After all the success you've had in open-wheel racing, why take on this challenge?

Villeneuve: I live for challenges. I love competition. All my life, I've been competing, always trying to outdo myself. Basically, I've never been happy just being "good enough." I always think I can do a little better, driving to become better at it.

NASCAR's a whole new challenge, completely different than anything I've ever done. I didn't want to drive just for the paycheck. After Formula One, going to another form of open-wheel racing didn't seem that exciting. I've already done that. The only challenge that was left was NASCAR, and also the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but that was only one race, not a championship.

It's a big, professional racing series where the competition is amazing and they run very close to each other. I've spent many years where once you get to the race, you kind of know who will finish where and there's very little action during the race. That's not the case with NASCAR, so that makes it very exciting.

Q: Since you've spent your entire career driving rear-engined formula cars, what have you found to be the biggest transition going to stock cars?

Villeneuve: The first few laps, the car wasn't as responsive as I'm used to. There's a lot of suspension movements and so on. Once I got used to it and stopped overdriving the car -- the first few laps, I was reacting to the car instead of driving actively, basically. After getting used to it, it became second nature and it then it drove just like any other racecar. Basically, I'm trying to find a way to get the most out of the engine, the car, the tires, the downforce you have. Once you get to that point, you find little tricks to go faster.

Q: Why did you decide to make your NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series?

Villeneuve: Because coming from an open-wheel series, before doing Cup races, you have to do either Busch or Craftsman Truck. Bill Davis has a program in Craftsman Truck and also, the trucks are closer to the COT cars than the Busch cars so that was another important factor.

Q: How much has the success of Juan Montoya played into the trend of open-wheel drivers coming to NASCAR?

Villeneuve: I think it's opened the eyes somewhat to the European crowd. I made my decision to try and come to NASCAR before Montoya announced it. When I saw him do it, then I thought, "OK, then I'm not the only one thinking about doing that."

Q: There will be times when you will face frustration in this transition. How will you handle that?

Villeneuve: Well, I've been through some frustrating seasons in F1. I think I've been through enough of them to learn how to bide my time. As long as you don't overreact. You have to keep on working, that's all. Keep your foot down, keep on working and not give up, that's the key thing.

Q: You're bringing in a new group of fans who may not know as much about NASCAR. What would you tell them about why you're making this transition?

Villeneuve: Why? Because it's good racing. If they followed me in F1 and enjoyed it, they should enjoy this show because the racing is amazing -- and it happens every weekend.

Q: Are you satisfied with your decision to move to NASCAR?

Villeneuve: Well, I was always excited about the prospects. But since I started testing, I've really gotten excited about driving again. I didn't expect it to be so exciting.

I wasn't missing it, when I stopped driving in F1. I had done enough and I got to a point where it wasn't fun going to the track anymore. It was fun in the car but as soon as I got out of the car, it wasn't fun. I just wasn't sure how much fun it would be to get in the car again. The first two laps of testing, my mind was made up.