Tony Stewart says that he would like to race in the U.S. Grand Prix at Indy

[Joe Fan]

Supposedly, Jackie Stewart has expressed an interest in giving a test session to Tony Stewart. Tony said that he would definately be interested in racing in F1 but not full time. He said that Jackie hasn't exactly called him yet either. He said he would especially be interested in racing at the U.S. Grand Prix at Indy. Wouldn't that be interesting.

[Invader]

It certainly would be very interesting. At least Stewart is an excellent driver whatever he climbs into...it's a shame Jeff Gordon is allergic to open wheelers.

[Joe Fan]

Invader, Jeff Gordon would love to test an F1 car but look who offered him the test--Frank Williams. I wouldn't trust that guy as far as I could throw him.

[Crash Test]

I think what Jackie Stewart says and what Jackie Stewart does could be two totally different things. Oh anyone tell Jeff that there are right hand corners in the track? I would also love to test an F1 car, would i be any good? Hell no...

[HARPOON]

IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO SEE A NASCAR DRIVER IN F1 BUT AFTER THE LAST TWO ATEMPTS BY CART DRIVERS IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE THAT F1 TEAM BOSSES WOULD BE A LITTLE RELUCTANT.
I'M ALL FOR GREAT DRIVERS DRIVING GREAT CARS BUT WOULDN'T IT BE MORE INTERESTING TO SEE SCHUEMY DRIVE A NASCAR?

[fatbloke]

Didn't JYS offer Jeff Gordon a run in the Stewart last year ? (allegedly)

Harpoon ? What the hell sort of name is that ? Reminds me of a beached whale!

[Neil C]

Thats funny, Mr. Bloke. I was about to say the same about your name.

[Invader]

Looky here...when someone kindly takes up moderatorship on this very forum, the new Mod can decide whether blobby, sizeist puns are allowed.....for now.... Shut it, you'll offend the chunkies

Thread resumed....

[Redneck]

Kind of funny I was thinking that you reminded me of some black helmeted penis looking thing...

[Crash Test]

Last two drivers tio come out of cart were duds so Nascar drivers wont get a go? Correct me if im wrong Villeneuve is in that 2 and won the world championship. The mere thought of a nascar driver in an F1 car is soooo laughable. If you cant see that they will go like a steaming pile of ****, you should get your head out from between your legs. The only reason a nascar driver would get a ride in an F1 car would be if they had the most money to rent a drive....

[MR_MRee]

It would be interesting to see how some of the NASCAR drivers would fare in the US Grand Prix.However,the race at Dover Downs is scheduled on the same day as the Formula-1 race and its highly unlikley that any NASCAR drivers would attempt to make both events.Even if Stewart were of a mind to try I doubt if Joe Gibbs would allow it.

[MR_MRee]

Crash Test
Its pretty apparent that your knowledge of NASCAR is quite limited based on the following statement.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Oh anyone tell Jeff that there are right hand corners in the track<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

NASCAR's schedule includes two road courses anually.One is at Watkins Glen,New York the other at Sonoma,California(Sears Point)Jeff Gordon has dominated these events,having won the last five road races in a row.The implication that Gordon cant drive on a track with right turns is totally asinine.

Also,if you think that if Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart were to decide to shift their carrers to F-1 or any other open wheel series that they would'nt be able to secure a seat,guess again.There would be a stampede of teams lining up to put one of these young men in their cars.


[This message has been edited by MR_MRee (edited 08 February 2000).]

[Jay]

Tony might have a chance to be an OK F1 driver.

BUT....

Not overnight. JV practiced all winter to be able to almost win the first race, and he was going from one high-power open wheeler to antoher. The only reason I can see Tony Stewart testing an F1 car at Indy, is as a one time deal where he comes out, does a few slow laps and goes back in. Just for the purpose of showing off F1 to American stock car fans.

It takes a lot of practice to drive an F1 car fast, and Tony has none. If he were to run at the US GP as a one time thing in a Jaguar, he would undoubtably crash off trying to push the Minardis around. It's not worth it.

Don't take this as an open-wheel fan bashing tin-tops. I am just giving my opinion.

[Crash Test]

okok, i we all know that they race on road tracks, we aren't that ignorant. What can the rest of you folk tell us about Nascar, Auscar, Legends, Sportsmans, HQs in Australia? I really am interested in some replies here, i know i didn't get any the last time i asked...

I'm not into ragging Nascar, i love it. But to think that one of it's drivers can take on F1 is a bit silly. How many drivers come from major open wheel backgrounds (Outlaws, midgets etc don't count) and all of Stewart's history in open wheelers is on ovals. Driving a nascar around an oval and an F1 car around a road track are like apples and oranges. Everything is so very different between the two, what's in common between the two? 4 tires, an engine, and a steering wheel. (ok, theres more, but F1 is space age compared to the ol stockers.)

Why hasn't there been a stampede to F1 from Nascar? Lets face it, why do these people become professional racing drivers? They love the sport, and the money is very very good. If these guys really are the best, why don't they take on Schumacher and his pay check?

[This message has been edited by Crash Test (edited 10 February 2000).]

[Joe Fan]

CrashTest, although I agree with your comment that NASCAR and F1 are as different as Apples and Oranges, I can't agree with your assumption that F1 drivers are vastly superior than NASCAR drivers.

David Pearson, Bobby Allison and others fared pretty well in IROC in comparison to F1 drivers. In fact, check out how they did racing against current WDC Emerson Fittipaldi and 1967 WDC Denny Hulme racing in Porsche Carreras when all four of these races were on road courses. Click here: www.irocracing.com/1974History.htm

NASCAR driver Donnie Allison, who wasn't even selected as one of the top fifty greatest NASCAR drivers by NASCAR for its 50th year anniversary, placed 4th in his first attempt in the 1970 Indianapolis 500. He followed this up with a 6th place finish in his second attempt. Click here: www.Indy500.com/stats/drivers.php3?drivername=Donnie+Allison

Your statement that if these drivers want to be the best then why don't they take on Schumacher in F1 is ridiculous. Who would want to leave their own country where they can be the second and third richest drivers in the world to race in a series where their ride is a more important component of their success, where team orders exist and where there are only four or five decent rides in the whole series that they would be lucky to get a shot at even if they produced in inferior equipment?

Any top NASCAR driver would be stupid to give up fame and fortune here in the U.S. to become a couple of fine print lines in the Monday morning newspaper.


[This message has been edited by Joe Fan (edited 10 February 2000).]

[Crash Test]

Yep, as a whole, open wheeler drivers don't fare to well against the Nascar folk in IROC. I'm certain that all of the F1 folk would get their butts kicked in Nascar, and vice versa.

[Jay]

Well as Joe always puts it, you don't mix your apples and your oranges. I now don't even think you can or should mix open-wheel racers with stock cars. The NASCAR drivers are much more experienced than the open-wheelers and therefore dominate at IROC. Yet I have no doubt that if you took the same bunch and put them in F1 cars, the open-wheelers would be lapping the stock car drivers within a few laps.

As for Tony, he would be smart to stay where he is and make $$$$$$$$$, rather than emabaressing himself like Alex Zanardi did.

[Joe Fan]

Jay, the IROC series in the 1970's was much different than today's IROC. They actually raced in sports cars and at least half of the races were on road courses. NASCAR drivers statistically averaged a better finish than F1 drivers during these years. Remember too that F1 drivers were no strangers to the sports car scene as many of them raced in various sports car races on their free weekends and quite of few of them raced in Can-Am like Denny Hulme did. Hulme had raced in a Porshe at Riverside before in Can Am and also was the winningest driver in Can Am's history with 22 victories.

As far as Tony Stewart embarrassing himself like Zanardi did in F1, lets be realistic. Tony Stewart is a talent that has proved himself quickly in a variety of different types of cars: sprint cars, IndyCars, and stock cars. Give him a year of testing and he would be challenging for the WDC in his second season in a competitive ride. BTW, Zanardi sure did embarrass himself in IROC finishing dead last in the series in 1998. Alex is talented but his talent is more limited than Stewart's.

I generally feel that the talent required in NASCAR Winston Cup would transfer quite well to a high downforce open wheel car with grooved tires. All that would be left then is adjusting to the steady diet of road circuits which someone like Stewart, Gordon and Martin could do quite easily since they have proved theirselves on road circuits in NASCAR.

[Jay]

Well Joe, you have been following tony Stewart and IROC a lot longer than I have, so I will assume that you know a lot more about them than I do.

After a year of testing, and given a competitive car, you may be right he might be able to challenge for the WDC. But I will have to disagree with your statement that the talent required in NASCAR would transfer quite well to F1. I have not driven either for real. But from my experiences playing GP2 (I'm still adicted) and NASCAR 2, and what I have heard from drivers, F1 cars drive completely differently from NASCARS.

F1 cars require a soft gentle touch, a lot of opposite lock, and if you make a mistake you will almost certainly end up in a gravel trap. Stock cars require a lot less opposite lock and a lot more wheel turning. Plus you usually have a second chance to get the car back if the rear becomes loose.

You have said it yourself Joe many times, don't mix apples and oranges. They are too different. Driving a heavy stock car on a road course is a lot different than driving a "high-downforce open-wheel car."

I don't know that much about Tony Stewart, but has he ever raced an open-wheeler on road courses?

And how many drivers (other than Mario) have had success in both F1 and NASCAR. They just don't mix!

[Crash Test]

dare i say some things have changed since the 70's...

[Joe Fan]

Jay, you can't put complete faith in the driveability of cars from computer simulations. Winson Cup cars are hands down the most unstable cars to drive at speeds over 180mph. The reason for this is that they only have a 5-6 inch spoiler and little weight in the rear of the car compared to F1 cars, IRL cars, Champ cars and sports cars. IF you watch these cars at Daytona and Talladega you can see how much the back end of these cars bounce around. It doesn't take much to spin them out at these speeds and it has been said that you could reach out and touch the backend of the car and spin them out. Sometimes it doesn't even take that as I have seen cars get loose just by another car coming up behind them and taking air off their spoilers. Heavier cars are more difficult to correct but I do agree that once a Champ car or F1 car gets way out of shape it is almost impossible to reel back compared to a Winston Cup car. But the wings on these open wheel cars do help prevent them from getting way out of shape moreso than a Winston Cup car. Richard Petty said the winged Plymonth Superbird of the early 1970's was almost impossible to spin out at high speeds because the wings would catch the car and help keep it from spinning out.

All in all, there is no cars today that a driver could race where the skills would directly transfer to a Winston Cup car or F1 car. They are both unique and two of the most difficult cars to drive. Before grooved tires, skills obtained from driving Champs cars were very transferable to F1. Now I believe that Winston Cup car skills would better transfer to F1 than even Champ cars because of the lack of grip that F1 cars now have with grooved tires.

There hasn't been any significant cross-pollination between NASCAR and F1 because they are based on two different continents, one is closed wheel and the other is open wheel, one races only on road courses and the other mainly on ovals and opportunities for top drivers in each series don't present theirselves due to these differences. They are both at the pinnacle of their respective type of motorsports and F1 owners look to F3000, British F3 and CART for its drivers and NASCAR Winston Cup owners look to Busch Grand National, Craftsman Truck Series and of late, nationally based open wheel series like the IRL and CART.

Back to the main issue, do not underestimate the talent of Tony Stewart. What he did at NASCAR Winston Cup level last year was incredible. He finished 4th in the point standings as a rookie and that is almost unheard of. Although I don't think he was the 4th best driver in the series last year (he benefitted from having the best aero package with the Pontiac Grand Prix and drove for Joe Gibbs who is the top Pontiac team owner) he is easily one of the top ten drivers in the series and should only get better. I wouldn't be surprised if he won the Winston Cup championship this year. He is the real deal.

[This message has been edited by Joe Fan (edited 12 February 2000).]