JACQUES VILLENEUVE (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO RACE IN MONTREAL? “It’s exciting. There’s always an amazing crowd for that race. It’s a lot of fun racing there with the Nationwide cars. I think that I’ve been on that track 14 or 15 times, so I’ve raced there quite a few times in F1 and it’s very different. We had a great run at Elkhart Lake. The car was very competitive. You could drive aggressive with it. The way that the setup felt, I think it will be very good in Montreal as well.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF NASCAR DECIDED TO BRING THE SPRINT CUP SERIES TO MONTREAL? “It would be great. What you have to understand is that Montreal is used to having F1, which is a big international race. It’s a little bit different fan base for NASCAR. The Quebec fans are just race fanatics and they just turn up for whatever racing there is. But if you brought the big league – the Cup (Series) there, you’d get bigger crowds than you get for F1. That would definitely be amazing.”
DO YOU SEE ANY PARALLELS BETWEEN YOUR SITUATION IN 1999 WHEN YOU WENT TO BAR HONDA AND NASCAR’S CARL EDWARDS AT ROUSH RACING? CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GRASS BEING GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE MINDSET? “I haven’t really followed the situation. There’s many things that impact racing, one of which is that you love racing and yet, you love competing and you want to win. The other thing is the business side of it. Sponsors spend money because they want a return and you want what is deserved (by the sponsor) as well. Of course the money would have an influence. Now, I’m really not sure what he (Carl Edwards) is doing. When we built BAR, I didn’t build it for the money. There were options for similar salaries. It was just the excitement of building a new team at that point.”
ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 12 Hot Wheels Dodge Challenger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING IN MONTREAL? “I love the track. It’s always nice to have the opportunity to race on that track. I think motorsports is pretty important for the Dodge brand. With what Jacques (Villeneuve) did in Elkhart Lake, it seems like the Dodge Challengers are pretty quick. I feel fortunate for the opportunity to race for Penske. I think it’s great. I’ll have the chance to race once in front of my home crowd; I think that’s always nice. I’m looking forward to it.”
WHAT WOULD IN MEAN IF NASCAR DECIDED TO BRING THE SPRINT CUP SERIES TO MONTREAL? “In Canada, somehow we’ve been able to attract lots of different series across the country and those series are giving a lot of importance to the Canadian market. From Indy Car, west coast to the east coast, NASCAR, F1…that’s a sign the Canadian fans are really fanatics. If you are capable of bringing the Sprint Cup Series to Montreal, I think, first of all, the attendance is going to show how much the fans are fanatics. At the same time, it’s going to bring a major event from the NASCAR Series to a crowd that is supporting, more and more, the NASCAR Series. That would be a pretty good move.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHO’S PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR CARS? IS IT A FULL PENSKE EFFORT, A COMBINATION OF TEAMS? “It’s a full Penske effort. It’s the No. 12 crew. Same crew chief as usual. They’re going to bring everything they’ve got to try and be as competitive as possible. Obviously, the Montreal race is a pretty important market for the Dodge brand and Penske being a good representative team for Dodge. As professional as they are, they’re always going to try and bring the best equipment and the best staff. They never go halfway. I think that it’s a very nice opportunity for me to compete on that track that I like a lot with Jacques (Villeneuve) and the team. So far, they’ve been really competitive and I’m looking forward to it.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE NATIONWIDE SERIES CAR? “I’m going to have to believe what Jacques (Villeneuve) says because I haven’t tried the (NASCAR Nationwide Series) car yet. The only other experience that I had was a couple of years ago with a different team with the old version of the Nationwide car. So, that’s why I’m looking forward to it. Not long ago, I had a chance to do a review with a magazine with the Dodge Challenger SRT/8 392. It (Nationwide Series car) is pretty heavy from what I’m used to driving. It seems to have plenty of power. Like Jacques says, the car handles well. I’m definitely looking forward to trying it.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR INCIDENT WITH ANDREW RANGER IN THE NASCAR CANADIAN TIRE SERIES AT MIRABEL? “What happened at Mirabel with me is very simple. As soon as you walk out of the race track, it’s all over. You try as much as possible to fix with the other driver the things that happened. Things have also gone wrong in Toronto in Indy car – Helio (Castroneves) took me out and basically five-minutes after we chat, it was all over. When you’re fighting for the same piece of real estate and you’re racing at those speeds, I don’t think that you can expect races are going to go perfectly fair and right. You have to agree with that. You have to be living OK with it. As soon as things are fixed with the drivers, then you move on. Keeping a grudge for a long time is unhealthy when you’re back in the car.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS RACING THE INDYCAR SERIES THIS YEAR IN LAS VEGAS? “I look forward to racing Vegas. It’s a second hometown race for the year in IndyCar, so it should be interesting. I think the format is also quite exciting. We’ll see what the outcome of what Randy Bernard is going to do; I’m looking forward to that.
“In regards to racing with Sam, I think that it’s been a good second year for the team. Good performance for the team with two poles back-to-back, one at the Indy 500. Quite a bit of bad luck on two ovals and two street courses. We got taken out and ran out of fuel – a couple fuel pump issues. Overall, we’re competitive. We just have to get a clean race and just get back into the top five where we belong.”
From Scott Sebastian / Dodge Motorsports PR / Darnell Communications
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