Jacques Villeneuve / Braun Racing Watkins Glen International Preview

Jacques Villeneuve / Braun Racing Watkins Glen International Preview

Press Release

August 3, 2010 – 7:13 pm

No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry

JACQUES VILLENEUVE QUICK FACTS

No. 32 Dollar General Toyota

Watkins Glen International

Zippo 200 at the Glen

August 7, 2010

Notes of Interest:

· Jacques Villeneuve is a rookie at Watkins Glen International! This weekend marks the road course phenom’s first visit to the upstate New York-based road course. How has he missed racing at the 11-turn race track? The Indy Car World Series, in which Villeneuve competed in from 1994-1995, stopped competing there following the 1981 season and returned as the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2005. The Formula One Series visited “the Glen” from 1961-1980, long before the 1997 Series Champion entered the scene.

· Nationwide Series Road Course Numbers: Villeneuve has three starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) – all of which are on road courses. He logged his career-best start from the outside pole position in June of this year when the NNS traveled to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the series’ inaugural race at Road America. His career-best finish of fourth came in August, 2009 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. In his three starts, Villeneuve has one top-five finish, has led for seven laps and has never started further back than sixth!

· Did you know…? Villeneuve won the Formula One World Championship (1997), the CART Championship (1995) and the 1995 Indianapolis 500. He is only the third driver to accomplish this feat (Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi). He also joined another elite group this year. Qualifying for the 2010 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Villeneuve joined Juan Pablo Montoya as the only two drivers in history to compete in all three of the historic track’s premier motorsports events: the Indianapolis 500, the U.S. Grand Prix and the Brickyard 400.

· Chassis #029 returns to Watkins Glen! This weekend, the Dollar General team heads to Watkins Glen International with chassis #29. This chassis was last seen on track there in August, 2009, where Brian Vickers started from the eighth position but was relegated to a 37th-place finish after facing transmission woes.

· The Dollar General team is SIXTH in the Nationwide Series Championship Owner’s Points.

Villeneuve on his debut at “the Glen” with the Dollar General team:

“I’ve never raced at Watkins Glen, but from what I’ve heard of it, I should like it a lot. I’ve been told that it is a course where you carry high speeds and need to brake hard. I expect that I will have a lot of fun racing with the Dollar General team there this weekend. After a few laps of practice, I think I’ll be comfortable on the track. It’s a lot of fun racing at a new course and also a great opportunity to work with the team again before we return to Montreal in a few weeks. We had such a great car and a fantastic team. It was frustrating not to finish second since we ran there almost the entire race. Hopefully we’ll have better luck at Watkins Glen and race for the win.”

Crew Chief, Trent Owens, on racing at “the Glen” with Villeneuve:

“We had a very strong run with Jacques at Road America earlier this summer. He led laps and ran second up until the alternator issue on the last lap took us out of the race. The Glen is a fast track and I think we can expect a lot of passing. It requires smooth driving and finesse, which fit Villeneuve’s style perfectly. He had a lot of fun wheeling the Dollar General Toyota around Road America, and I think he is going to really enjoy it at Watkins Glen. He’s never raced here before, but it won’t take him long to learn the track. If we can get dialed in like we were at Road America, I think we can run up front and contend for the win.”

Fonte: Braun Racing Press Release/Catchfence

Que bom, teremo JV em ação neste findi!!!!!

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy