NASCAR's Open-Wheelers Slowly Fading

Dario Franchitti is done with NASCAR, and if you're surprised, then, well, you shouldn't be.

Franchitti announced Tuesday that he'd be heading back to life in the IRL IndyCar Series with the same owner who drove for in NASCAR, Chip Ganassi. The move was a little puzzling especially knowing that Franchitti would be replacing Dan Wheldon -- one of the series' top drivers.

But more telling of Franchitti's move was how quickly the idea by NASCAR owners to bring open-wheel talent to NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series with limited stock car experience at best became a bust.

Franchitti is the third driver to take the reins in NASCAR with intentions of making a long-term career move at the beginning of 2008 to succumb to the economics of NASCAR. In other words, open-wheel drivers with limited experience struggle early in their stock car careers and sponsors just don't want to spend money and time on such a move.

That list includes Franchitti, Jacques Villenueve and Patrick Carpentier, and leaves just one question.

Who's next?
Villeneuve departed from his intentions to become a full-time NASCAR driver nearly as quickly as he started when he failed to qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500 in February.

Carpentier, as we mentioned last week, was unofficially cut from his No. 10 car after 2008 thanks to Gillett-Evernham Motorsports signing Reed Sorenson and placing Carpentier into the group of "we'll race you if we get a sponsor, but you're not a priority with us."

The former open-wheel drivers who haven't made the cut list include A.J. Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya and, if you're really digging deep, Casey Mears. Mears, however, has been in Sprint Cup for six years now and has made a name for himself only because of his stock car exploits, despite getting into racing via open wheel.

Allmendinger has likely shown the most overall improvement from the point at which he started in NASCAR with Red Bull Racing until now (so much so that I was inclined to write about how Red Bull would be simply stupid not to re-sign the guy in 2009), and he'll undoubtedly have a future in NASCAR no matter where he ends up.

Hornish Jr. appeared to come in to NASCAR much like Franchitti -- on the back of a team owner with previous IRL ties (Penske Racing) that saw his raw talent and wanted to adapt it to the more prestigious Sprint Cup. Hornish has been able to maintain sponsorship on his No. 77 car despite having a mediocre season in 2008, though there have been flashes of brilliance. And much like Franchitti, Hornish isn't exactly driving for NASCAR's best teams and has done what he can.

And for Montoya -- driving for the same team Franchitti did -- his career took off like a rocket in 2007 with some wins in both the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series. Combine that with his brash personality, F1 experience, and ability to market to the hispanic NASCAR audience and you've got a poster child for how the open-wheel experiment should work.

But the statistics don't lie, and when three of the six open-wheel aces are already exiting NASCAR less than a year after their arrival, the story is quite telling about the simplicity of NASCAR.

Or, in other words, NASCAR isn't quite as easy as some people give it credit for, and when drivers come in with high aspirations because life has been easy in everything else they've raced, they seemingly get a punch in the gut when they find learning the stock car craft takes time and effort -- especially when they are thrown into the meanest of the NASCAR wolves in the Sprint Cup Series.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-03-2008 @ 3:58PM

Susan Huston said...

Hmmm guess you just don't buckle in, go fast and turn left! Like most sports, the real pros make it look easy. I have told so many na sayers there is a finesse to driving in the NASCAR series and now maybe a few will listen!

9-03-2008 @ 8:20PM

Kim said...

Thank you, Geoffrey!

When you wrote about Carpentier last week, I commented on how I
didn't believe he was ready for NASCAR as he hadn't had enough
experience yet. I said he should try to catch a ride in the
Nationwide Series for a couple of years, master it, then move back up
to Sprint Cup. Did you see how beat up I got? There were some really
nasty comments posted after I stated my opinion.

It's nice to see I am not the only one (this includes you, too
Susan. Thank you) who can see that just because you've driven in
the Indy Series, it doesn't make you a "shoe in champion" for NASCAR.

Kim

9-04-2008 @ 12:33AM

anna seitter said...

Well, i already commented about franchini exiting nazcar on the JJ file, so nonsense repeating the same again.
CARPENTIER was 1st, FRANCHINI 2nd, SAM HORNY will not waste another season in NAZCAR ,so i predict he will be next.
And sas the previous 2: smart choice SAM.

9-04-2008 @ 12:34AM

Actually ,like the previous 3 i should said: I had forgotten that
JACK VILLEVIEW also left, so:smart choice for him too.

9-04-2008 @ 1:44AM

Don Emerson said...

Let's be fair about this. First of all, these drivers were rushed into the big leagues without any prior stock car racing experience. They should have been allowed to spend a year or two in the Nationwide Series before being sent up to do battle with the big boys. It was like taking a 100 yard sprinter and entering him in the mile run without any training or preparation. it won't work no matter who you are. Secondly they weren't put in the best of rides either, meaning which ones drove for Gibbs, RCR, or Hendricks if you get my drift. And lastly, they weren't given enough time to really prove their skills. You can write off the first year as a learning experience, while the second year will give your a more accurate feel for what they are as drivers. Now that the leagues have combined, you won't be seeing this exodus of F1 and Indy car drivers coming over to Nascar. I for one enjoyed watching them and hope they take good memories of Nascar and it's fans with them as they leave. works for me......

9-06-2008 @ 7:18PM

ab said...

Oh wow...I can't believe it but I agree with you Don. These guys got thrown into the mix without being adequately prepared.

It was unrealistic for the owners to assume that sponsors were going to be knocking on the door...I would hope that they all had ironclad contracts and the owners still have to fork over lots of dough.

Out of the three, Carpentier, imo, had the best future ahead of him. Im gonna miss Pattrick.

9-07-2008 @ 2:33AM

Don said...

While I've never been one to assume that any of these open-wheel drivers, including Montoya, would develop into the next NASCAR superstar anytime soon this series of dismissals and failures perhaps says more about the naivety of sponsors and/or car owners than it does about these drivers and their ultimate abilities as really, what the hell did some of these people expect if they were going to be making definitive judgments about certain drivers mere months after hiring them? Some of these sponsors and car owners overreached themseleves in their enthusiasm about the whole trend and unfortuantely set these drivers up to fail. The bottom line is that if you don't have the funding to absorb at least a season and a half of relative failure at the Sprint Cup level if necessary then you shouldn't be in NASCAR at that level anyway given its obvious difficulty. Yeah, there are many corporate sponsors out there who'd screw up their noses and say b.s. to that, but to hell with them, facts are still facts if you want to do something the right way. I know this, if I were one of these guys being told "sorry, we thought we'd be able to give you more of an opportunity" sure as hell wouldn't be good enough to appease me at this point.

9-07-2008 @ 11:46AM

Carrie said...

I love that a NASCAR writer is implying that the open wheel guys are gone because they couldn't cut it as drivers. That's complete and utter crap and you know it, Geoff. As Don has said, none of these three had the opportunity to be in good, decently funded rides in Cup.

They were all also thrown into the fire with little or no experience in the heavier stock cars. That isn't their fault.

And the simple fact is Dario & Patrick both would still have rides in Cup if sponsorship had materialized for their rides. Look how many other teams in NASCAR are having sponsorship issues. You can hardly blame that on Dario and Patrick.

Instead of taking this opportunity to take shots at Dario & Patrick for having the guts to try something different and not succeed (by whatever standards they did not succeed), how about taking shots at the people that realize deserve the condemnation. How about taking shots at TPTB @ GEM and at Cheap Ganassi for stringing these guys along with promises they couldn't or wouldn't keep?