DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was 25 years ago when Jacques Villeneuve was literally on top of the world.
He won the Formula One world championship in 1997 driving for Williams-Renault. The French Canadian completed an impressive run that began with his victory in the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the CART championship that season. He joined Formula One circus in 1996 and was the world champion in just his second year.
Today, Villeneuve competes for the pleasure of racing. At 50 years old, he remains remarkably fit, but has a shaved head instead of the flowing locks he had when he was a youngster racing an Indy car.
Villeneuve accomplished another impressive feat Wednesday night at Daytona International Speedway. His speed in the No. 27 Ford Mustang was fast enough to make the starting lineup for Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
On Tuesday when the garages opened for the Daytona 500, Villeneuve believed with 42 cars entered for the 40-car field that his chances of making the starting lineup were slim.
“I was convinced we didn’t have the speed to get in on time, and I thought we would then have to fight it through the Duels,” Villeneuve said. “Somehow on Wednesday, the car was a lot easier to drive. It was easy to be smooth because we got in by not a lot. It was very, very close. It was all a matter of getting right up to speed coming out of turn two, going through the gears, getting away from the wall to not block the air, just getting these extra few revs and that made the difference.
“I’m ecstatic because all of us thought that if we had a good day, we could maybe be P4, so I have a little bit more of a chance during the Duels. This was surprising for everyone, how well the car ran and the fact that it was easy to drive made it good as well because all yesterday it was very notchy. The car was darting left and right and that always kills the speed a little bit and somehow today it was just really smooth to drive.”
Sunday’s race will be Villeneuve’s fifth NASCAR Cup Series start. He qualified sixth and finished 21st driving for Bill Davis at Talladega Superspeedway in 2007 in a Slugger Labbe-prepared Toyota. He also finished 41st at Phoenix that year.
He attempted to make the starting lineup for the 2008 Daytona 500, but failed to make the field.
He returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2010 and finished 29th in the Brickyard 400. Villeneuve’s last NASCAR Cup Series start was at Sonoma Raceway in 2013. He lined up 22nd but finished 41st.
The son of Canadian racing legend Gilles Villeneuve teamed up with Team Hezeberg Powered By Reaume Brothers Racing for a Ford effort at Daytona this season.
They had something to celebrate by making the field through speed.
He ranked this accomplishment, “Super high” in his career.
“Obviously, it’s not a win,” Villeneuve said. “It’s not like winning the Indy 500 or the F-1 championship, but at this point in my career the last time I tried to qualify here was 14 years ago, just to make the show is incredible because it’s a small team. We didn’t link up with a big team to get the car ready and it’s highly unexpected to be able to make it on time, so it ranks right after these big wins.,”
At 50, Villeneuve proved that he still has it as a racer.
“That’s always amazing,” Villeneuve said. “I got this last year because I won the last race in the Euro NASCAR and on the podium, there were 20-year-olds and then they look at you and you can see that they’re confused. To be able to make such a big race at such a high level is amazing and when I’m in the race car I don’t realize that I’m 50, which is good. As long as it carries on like this, I can’t imagine myself stopping racing.
“I’ve always felt that whenever I’ve come to do races in NASCAR there was a lot of respect for the history and for what I’ve achieved in different categories, which has been nice. The welcoming has been very positive.”
Villeneuve established himself as one of the World’s best race drivers when he won both the Indianapolis 500 and the CART Series championship in 1995. He cemented that image with the 1997 Formula One world championship.
He has also raced at Le Mans and now he will line up in America’s biggest stock car race, the Daytona 500.
That’s versatility.
“It is, but it’s very old-fashioned,” he said in response to a question posed by SPEED SPORT. “When I was in F-1 I didn’t think I would be able to drive anything else. I was so focused and groomed for those kind of cars, and it’s not until I jumped into a NASCAR that I realized there was a lot of fun to be had driving something different and I’ve had a blast ever since just jumping in different kind of cars.
“The most fun I’ve had racing has been in NASCAR, not qualifying because it’s hard to beat the speed that you get in Formula 1 but racing wheel-to-wheel or fender-to-fender, you can’t beat the way it goes in NASCAR.”
Three weeks ago Villeneuve became a father for the fifth time. The Villeneuve named his young son Gilles in honor of his famous father, a Canadian racing legend in his own right.
“Maybe by the time I was 50 I was ready,” he said. “Already my fourth child is called Henri, which is my father’s middle name, so it was a step. It took a while to get to that point because he wasn’t a very present father. It was different days back then, so I guess I had a lot to digest and at this point in my life I was ready to do that, and it felt right.”
Being named after Gilles Villeneuve could be a heavy burden for the young one to handle throughout his life.
“It could be,” Jacques said. “Whenever you try to give your kids the best package they can and sometimes it can be tough, but then it’s their life to lead. You can’t just do things every time thinking, ‘Oh no, this will be too hard for him. I’ll just make it nice and easy. I’ll just put him on a cushion.’
“I didn’t grow up like this and it turned out well. Other kids in my situation would have turned out wrong. You just never know, so you do the best you can.
“Yes, if he decides to go into racing, it could be a heavy weight to carry, but I don’t have any of my kids that have been interested in racing – maybe the fourth one a little bit – but not that much. They did not grow up seeing me racing, so maybe they didn’t get the bug.”
Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a crash during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit Zolder. He was an iconic figure in international racing when he died at 32.
Jacques Villeneuve was asked what his famous father would think of his son driving a stock car in the Daytona 500?
“I think he’d be jealous by now,” Villeneuve quipped. “What I know of him a lot of it is probably my imagination because there’s no way you know your dad when you’re 9 or 10, or it’s what I’ve heard from people was also being romanticized, so I really don’t know what he would have thought.
“I heard that he was wanting us to race together in Le Mans, for example, but then how would he have reacted to being beaten?
“I would like to imagine it would be great, it would be father and son special moment, but we’ve seen it in other areas that sometimes the two things don’t go well together. Jealousy starts building up, so I really don’t know.”
By making the starting lineup for Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500,Villeneuve has finally satisfied his jealousy of the drivers that have previously driven in one of the world’s biggest races.