Stark reality awaits for the sport's open-wheel rookies (cont'd)

They were each immediately competitive, and it was because they were prepared. Imagine how different racing history might have been had Gordon or Stewart been thrown into a situation like A.J. Allmendinger was last year, forced to try and keep his head above water in the Cup Series before he was ready to do so. Allmendinger's preparation for NASCAR's highest level consisted entirely of three starts in the Craftsman Truck Series. Unfortunately, that kind of thinking today isn't the exception. It's the rule.

1on1: Allmendinger

Even though A.J. Allmendinger has been temporarily replaced in the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota, he hasn't given up on NASCAR.

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You see it over and over. Franchitti's Sprint Cup career was preceded by one truck start and four Busch races, 32 fewer than another former Indy Racing League champion -- Stewart -- had under his belt when he made the jump. Hornish waded in with 11 Busch starts, Carpentier three. Villeneuve tried to make it work with seven truck events as preparation. Even Montoya, whose ability to transition from open-wheel to stock cars is made more impressive by each passing day, leapt in after four Busch races. Some of these drivers are trying to accelerate through the learning curve by running Nationwide and Sprint Cup events, but history has shown that tactic isn't nearly as effective as tackling those series one at a time.

What a strange dichotomy it creates. The support circuits languish, while drivers who could both inject fresh blood into them and benefit from the experience they provide choose instead to pass them by. It's tough to blame them; men like Franchitti and Carpentier are much older and more accomplished than Gordon and Newman were when they broke into NASCAR, and it's understandable that they might not want to slum it in what's perceived as a minor league. It's also not entirely their doing -- car owners are the ones making the rides available, and putting some of these open-wheelers in Sprint Cup seats prematurely. And given how different the Nationwide car is today, you have to wonder: would a full season down there even help?

In many ways this is a phenomenon unintentionally created by Montoya himself, whose relatively seamless transition into NASCAR led car owners to pursue open-wheelers with the same vigor with which they went after former U.S. Auto Club champions after Gordon and Stewart hit it big. "I think he encouraged teams to maybe look at open-wheel drivers or foreign-born drivers a bit more," Franchitti said in the preseason. Sponsors have proven a bit more circumspect, preferring to wait and see how it all pans out. In a sport where success and corporate backing are directly proportional, that forces a kind of patchwork funding effort that isn't necessarily conducive to performance.

It's a noble experiment, but stark reality awaits. Points for the current season go into effect after Sunday's event at Bristol Motor Speedway, and as of right now none of this current crop of former open-wheelers are inside the top 35. For these drivers who once saw glory at places like Indianapolis and Vancouver and Laguna Seca, how many frustrating Fridays are ahead? And how much patience will car owners show, before moving on to the next new thing?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer