Stewart Expletive Picked Up On Network’s Broadcast

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Even if Jacques Villeneuve never races again, he has quite an impressive list of accomplishments, including the 1995 Indianapolis 500 victory, the 1995 CART championship and the 1997 Formula One World Championship.
When Villeneuve announced on Friday that he would make his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut at Talladega Superspeedway next week in the UAW-Ford 500 just 24 days after sitting in a Cup car for the first time, he drew plenty of criticism from the Nextel Cup regulars.
“He’s doing what? Holy cow, that’s not good,” said driver Kyle Busch. “You’ve got to start somewhere, but the Cup Series at Talladega definitely isn’t the place to start. I think he ran his first Truck race and did all right, ran well, and I think running more Truck races through the rest of the year — which I’m sure they’re planning on doing — is going to be good to get ready for next year. I guess Talladega is the first test to get ready for next year.”
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon has been the best driver at Talladega recently, including a win this past April. Gordon is not sure that’s the best place for a driver to make his Cup debut.
“I am a big fan of Jacques, but I think this is not the right decision,” Gordon said. “I didn’t think it was the right decision with David Gilliland (last year). Nothing against their talent, or anything else, I just look at that race in The Chase — Why?  You want to run a race, go to Atlanta, go to one of the mile-and-a-half tracks.
“I am very very surprised that was approved as his first Cup race. I don’t agree with it, but I am not going to lose sleep over it either.”
Villeneuve and Bill Davis Racing participated in a Car of Tomorrow test at Talladega 24 days ago. Villeneuve ran more laps than any other driver and was able to bump-draft his way through the pack without upsetting any of the veteran drivers.
That gave Villeneuve confidence that he could race at Talladega in the Cup race. He will also compete in next Saturday’s 94-lap NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Mountain Dew 250.
“I’m really happy that NASCAR has given me its approval so quickly, and having run Talladega with the cup drivers, I’m really looking forward to it,” Villeneuve said. “It’s a huge step in my learning process ,and I’m realistic in my expectations. Every one of those guys is quick and the teams are all good, too.”

• Tony Stewart came under tremendous scrutiny after the two-time Cup champion dropped an “F-bomb” on national television. During ESPN2’s telecast of Saturday morning’s practice session, Stewart was in a conversation with fellow driver Robby Gordon when a cameraman approached them on pit road.
Stewart, thinking he was having a conversation with a fellow driver, told the cameraman, “Get the (bleep) away from me.”
The microphone on the camera picked up the comment, which came through loud and clear on the telecast.
ESPN2, which does not air its race coverage on a seven-second delay, could be fined by the Federal Communications Commission for having a profanity make it on the air-waves. Because of that, NASCAR officials could fine the driver for the comment and deduct Nextel Cup points.

• With the Car of Tomorrow getting its first restrictor-plate race at Talladega Superspeedway next week, NASCAR officials announced some rule changes for the cars. Those include rear-wing angle of 10 degrees with a one-inch wicker.
Also, a larger 31-32nd-inch restrictor plate will be used. That is up from seven-eighths-inch that was used on the current car in April.
While that will allow more air into the carburetor, making the engines run faster, the extra wing angle and aerodynamic drag should balance out the speed gain from the larger plate.
 
• Jimmie Johnson turned what he considered a disappointing qualifying lap into the pole at Kansas Speedway. “I was real unhappy with my lap to be honest, I thought we were in big trouble,” Johnson said. “The car’s handling didn’t keep me from committing to the throttle. The car’s tires were chattering and I thought I would knock the wall down in turns three and four.
“But it turned out all right.”
Johnson’s ugly lap of 175.063 miles per hour in his Chevrolet was the fastest in Friday’s qualification session, but he was unable to keep it for long.
Johnson crashed during Saturday’s practice session and was forced to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
 
• Ryan Newman qualified second, but his car failed technical inspection on Friday.
“I’m not sure what happened,” Newman said. “The car got through inspection before qualifying, but something wasn’t right when we went back through inspection after our run. We’ll just have to make up for this setback on Sunday.”