Says crew chief of PJ Jones' car after his top 5 finish at Watkins Glen:
"He's got a tremendous amount of talent, and not just on a road course neither."
(paraphrased, please assume redneck accent for the right effect)

Umm, yeah. Talent to turn right and left, but apparently not enough to just turn left for them full time.
Not saying it doesn't take talent to drive an oval, but the way they discount someone who can actually drive a car in more than one direction is astounding.

 

if anyone but the oval guys ever won the IROC, they'd probably get more credit.

 

dont kenny brack and castroneves do reasonably well in the series?

 

Maybe I'm not following but it sounds like there is a presumption here that road racing automatically talent translates to oval talent...?

Not saying that Jones doesn't have an abundance of both - I talked to him at an IMSA race at Portland back in the mid '80s and he was joking about leaving on Saturday evening to run a midget and having to break out his "dirt track" luggage - with the boots and Wranglers - to replace the polo shirts and khakis that he brought to the road race.

Isn't it possible that neither discipline is harder (or easier)? That they are just different and that drivers can have experience and/or talent in one or both of them?

Kirk

 

My interpretation is that the crewchief contends that PJ has talent outside of a roadcourse, while Madhatter points out that they won't hire him to race on both ovals and roadcourses full-time. That to me seems to imply that PJ's desirability is only limited to a roadcourse, which seems to contradict the statement made by the crewchief.

Chris, who's ***-tired after spending all day in the sun autocrossing at the local short-track.

 

no kidding, why do the oval-ers always clean up?

 

when was the last time IROC ran on a road course? Looks like 1991 to me, but I could be wrong.

Joel

 

Last iroc road course:
August 10, 1991
Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen, New York
2.428-mile road course, 30 laps, 72.84 miles

4 out of the top 5 in this race represented NASCAR

 

take them into an open wheel car that sticks to the ground and well see who starts winning.

its apples to oranges, nascar drivers drive big heavy cars with higher center's of gravity compared to the cart and IRL road huggers.