Pruett sees NASCAR as his ‘last frontier’

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

At age 39 and with 10 years of experience driving in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series, it's hard to think of Scott Pruett as a rookie.

But as the green flag waved on the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season two weeks ago at Daytona, Pruett was one of seven rookies in the hunt for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award this season.

"I'm just starting to get a feel for all of this," Pruett said of his venture into stock-car racing. "It's a lot different than what I'm used to, that's for sure."

For the past 10 years, Pruett has driven for five teams in the CART series, including the 1999 campaign for team owner Cal Wells. When Wells decided to start a Winston Cup team this season, Pruett made the jump from open-wheel cars to stock cars.

"My decision to move to NASCAR was based purely on what I wanted to do and where I saw myself going," Pruett said. "I've been very fortunate over the years to have driven just about everything and I've won in just about everything I have driven.

"The last frontier for me is Winston Cup. What Cal is doing, and (primary sponsor) Tide, the opportunity was there that I just couldn't turn down. I still had two years left on my Indy-car contract, so it was a pretty difficult decision, (but) my decision was based purely on selfish reasons."

Pruett said he first caught the NASCAR "bug" while driving in the International Race of Champions (IROC) all-star series during the late '90s.

"That's what gave me the real interest in coming here, was racing in the IROC," Pruett said. "Getting out there with the Earnhardts and the Gordons and Labontes and Rudds and Wallaces and so on, it's good racing, it's fun racing."

And a completely different form of racing than what he had grown accustomed to in CART.

"For these guys, the draft is such a key and it takes years and years to perfect," he said. "In (CART), the draft is not your friend. That in itself is a big change.

"Then there's the fact that you do have the ability (in NASCAR) to lean on each other -- and we don't (in CART); we can't touch each other. Well, you can, but ..."

Pruett said his first test session last winter in a Winston Cup car was quite an eye-opener.

"The first thing you notice is starting it up, the noise," he said. "There's a lot more engine noise here than with the Champ cars. Then, it's the rpms; instead of shifting at close to 16,000, you're shifting at 8,500 -- about half.

"The weight of the car, we're going from a 1,500-pound car to a 3,400-pound car. And the downforce, just the pure grip, is different. These (stock cars) make maybe a thousand pounds of downforce and an Indy car makes 5,000-pounds of downforce and that's a pretty significant difference."

Pruett said the PPI Motorsports team will approach each race weekend as two separate races because the team has no provisionals to fall back on and must qualify on time for each race.

"The first thing is making it in the races," Pruett said. "There are going to be two races for us: the race to make it into the race, then the race itself on Sunday.

"Our first goal will be to qualify for every race. Even for (established) teams right now, that's a pretty tall order. Once we get out there and go racing, we can see what we can do about trying to work our way to the front."

So far this season, Pruett is batting .500 in Winston Cup qualifying attempts. He qualified 15th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished 19th -- the third-best showing by a rookie in the race.

Last weekend at North Carolina Speedway, Pruett joined fellow former open-wheel drivers Dave Blaney and Mike Bliss in failing to qualify for the Dura Lube/Kmart 400.

After testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this winter, Pruett said he would be disappointed if he didn't qualify for this weekend's CarsDirect.com 400.

"This is just a beautiful place," Pruett said of the 1.5-mile superspeedway. "The track's smooth, it's wide, and it looks like there is plenty of racing room.

"I didn't have the opportunity to run here with open-wheel cars and I'm disappointed we didn't (because) this is such a great place."