Patrick Carpentier

Can someone please tell me how we let this guy go out of open wheel racing ?

He's incredibly talented and did a great job with a hack team (Cheever). He's personable, likable and marketable and I am saddened by his departure to stock cars more than any other open wheeler, even over Dario and Sam.

I was really hoping he would have landed a ride after escaping Cheever and the Toyota debacle.

Villeneuve is a big mouthed lunkhead whom I could care less about but Patrick Carpentier is a class act and talented driver who deserved better in open wheel.

Here's hoping he comes back home to us sometime in the near future.

It's doubtful though because as expected, Patrick is showing he will be very competetive in stock cars.
(Busch Series Montreal, qualified pole, finish P2)
(40th on grid, finished 20th at Watkins Glen after
leading seven laps midway through)

I can't wait to see how he does on ovals.

He would be the ONLY reason I follow ANYTHING in NASCAR.

Pat got away for the same reason he got of Champ Car. He didn't want to work for nothing. If he was going to race for fun, he could do that in Grand AM and that was his plan, that and being a real estate agent in Vegas where he lives now, but then NASCAR called, and the rest is history.

You want this to stop happening, have OW racing be a destination. For that, there needs to be drivers with real pay checks and real purses. Right now, neither the Champ Car boys or IRL boys are getting paid for what they are worth and THAT is why NASCAR keeps getting the best and brightest. That, and after 50 years, NASCAR management has realized they can embrace foreign drivers or guys from OW.....at least, until they have a hope in hell of winning....and then maybe things might change.

JV may be opinioned and loud but he has accomplished more than Patrick. I like Patrick. JV I have no great thoughts about and haven't talked to him since he was about 5.
That said JV is nowhere near the driver his father was and I saw alot of him!

BTW, why did Gil never graduate to the IndyCars? He was Atlantic champ several times, and it must've been obvious to any team owner in CART that he was a monster driver.

It would appear that the team owners in NASCAR are looking for experienced CC/IC/F1 drivers .....
I haven't quite figured out why the NASCAR team owners are after them so diligently .....
once they get those drivers, it takes a while for them to learn the heavier lower tech stockcars .....
I think one reason is that the drivers add an international flavor to the driver's pool but I could be wrong. :s

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BTW, why did Gil never graduate to the IndyCars? He was Atlantic champ several times, and it must've been obvious to any team owner in CART that he was a monster driver.

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Gilles was already established and winning in Formula One by the time CART was formed.

Gilles had f1 aspirations from the word go, and no interest in ovals. He did stock racing a couple of times, and it wasn't his thing.

AS for Pat in NASCAR, I said it before, he left because he wasn't getting any pay for racing in OW, either the IRL or Champ Car. He was seen as yesterday's man and he was looking at semi retirement. The IRL establishment didn't want to pay him enough to make it worth his while when they could get someone like Chesson or Simmonds in there and maybe get lucky. The way Eddie Cheever abused him was just awful, but Hey, that is Eddie....a small mind working in a big world.

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Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior

Gilles was already established and winning in Formula One by the time CART was formed.

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And even before CART was formed, he basically went straight from Atlantics to a works seat at McLaren in 1977. After his debut, he was a hot property in the F1 world.

ClarkFan