Interesting take on jumps to NASCAR

This was written by someone at the Nashville Tennesseean and reprinted in the Indianapolis Star, saying it's unlikely that there'll be any "jumpers" to NASCAR next year in view of what's happened to the jumpers this year.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080711/SPORTS0107/807110481/1004/SPORTS

Believe it or not, there are more competitive rides in the IndyCar Series right now than there are in either the Sprint Cup or Nationwide Series. There are too many big teams in NASCAR hiring big drivers, and the price to compete has driven out everyone but the Hendricks, Gibbs, and Roushes.

I think all this has shown the world Nascar isn't a hick sport anymore if it ever was anyways. All these furriners like Villeneuve and Francheeki thought they'd turn up and cruise and collect. It's a little harder than it looks. You can't just drop in and expect immediate success, you've got to do the hard yards in their system.

Somewhere (presumably in the Grand Am paddock), Scott Pruett has a smiling assuredly to himself, thinking, "I warned those guys it wouldn't be easy."

Regardless of how the driving standards in NASCAR compare to those in the IRL, the two championships are so different that it should've been obvious that you can't jump straight into the Sprint Cup and be competitive. JPM is gradually getting there in his second season, and perhaps Dario would have.

Open-wheel racing has struggled in the US in recent years, and NASCAR has taken a lot of its potential drivers and fans, that's no secret. However, the absorption of ChampCar has improved the IRL's reputation, and for 2009 it's a more attractive option than ever before. The real benchmark is whether the next generation of American drivers can get competitive IRL drives (without having a famous relative or being female, that is).

I think all this has shown the world Nascar isn't a hick sport anymore if it ever was anyways. All these furriners like Villeneuve and Francheeki thought they'd turn up and cruise and collect. It's a little harder than it looks. You can't just drop in and expect immediate success, you've got to do the hard yards in their system.

Um, no one is going to drop in to a team like Ganassi (Montoya and Franchitti), Evernham's pet project #10 (Carpentier), or Bill Davis Racing (Villenueve) and be successful. Not even Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr. or whomever. These are back end teams at the moment, and it would be very unlikely that anyone would be even moderately successful driving for them. Let's put these boys in a Gibbs / Hendrick / Roush car, give them a year, and see what happens. Guaranteed they would be competitive in their second full season.

I think in a lot of cases it depends on when the light bulb comes on in the drivers head and they get the technique for driving a Nascar round a track.

For Montoya it happened relatively quickly.
Allmendinger took a year and a half and was lucky to have a team that was willing to stick with him, he's now running consistently up in the top-15 and will probably be in the top-35 by the end of the season.

Carpentier seems to have got it together now as well.

Dario was running well in the Nationwide series but was struggling due to obvious problems with the Sprint Cup team and that injury at Talladega.

Hornish Jr started strong but has since been unlucky/slow. I would have thought that having done 2 years part time in ARCA/Busch that he would have done better.

Hornish Jr started strong but has since been unlucky/slow. I would have thought that having done 2 years part time in ARCA/Busch that he would have done better.

Yes, but look at how Newman and Ku. Busch are performing at the moment. Newman's team is running so poorly that he is leaving the organisation. Why would you expect anything better from Hornish?

Yes, but look at how Newman and Ku. Busch are performing at the moment. Newman's team is running so poorly that he is leaving the organisation. Why would you expect anything better from Hornish?

True, had forgotten about that.