Villeneuve tries to add Daytona 500 to his storied career

• Published date: 13 February 2022
• Publication title: The China Post

Jacques Villeneuve tried 14 years ago to race the Daytona 500 to add to his storied racing resume. He failed to make the field and moved on with his career.

Now he's returning to Daytona International Speedway to give it another shot. The Canadian will attempt to qualify for the biggest race on the NASCAR calendar next week for a team trying to work its way to the top of stock car racing.

Why would a 50-year-old former Formula One champion and Indianapolis 500 winner even bother?

'The Daytona 500 is one of the three big races on the planet,' Villeneuve said. 'You have the Le Mans 24, the Indy 500 and Daytona, so that's one reason for doing it. And you know, you have a good race, then you end up doing a few more?'

Villeneuve won the Indy 500 in 1995 and two years later was the F1 champion. He spent 11 seasons at the top level of motorsports. When he lost his F1 seat at the end of 2006, he simply searched for new racing opportunities.

His journey took him to Talladega Superspeedway for a 21st-place finish in his NASCAR debut in 2007, five races in the Xfinity Series at the Montreal road course named after his late father, and seven Truck Series races. Villeneuve raced in a handful of NASCAR feeder series, in supercars, in Formula E and finally two seasons in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

Now he's trying to help Team Hezeberg launch its program and hopes to qualify his way into his first Cup race since 2013 at Sonoma. Team Hezberg is a new collaborative effort between former sports car driver Toine Hezemans, Dutch businessman Ernst Berg and Reaume Brothers Racing.

The team is planning a partial schedule this season that focuses on the six road course races on the 2022 Cup schedule. Loris Hezemans, son of the team owner, has been announced as the primary driver but the 24-year-old is not approved to race at Daytona.

And that's where Villeneuve, who counts four Cup races among his 20 starts across NASCAR's...