Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Christian Fittipaldi making jump to NASCAR

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Christian Fittipaldi, who has spent the past eight seasons in CART after a three-year stint in Formula One, is leaving open-wheel racing to drive in NASCAR for Petty Enterprises.

Fittipaldi, 31, will drive a combined NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup Series schedule next season before moving to Winston Cup on a full-time basis in 2004 and 2005. Fittipaldi also is expected to drive in some Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) events next season.

"I've been looking at NASCAR over the last several years and knew I wanted to be a part of it," Fittipaldi. "I've been part of one of the top teams in the CART series with Newman/Haas and I wanted to find a similar opportunity in NASCAR.

"Petty Enterprises is one of the top names in the sport. Their team is clearly on the way up and they have an impressive group of people and equipment working to take them to the top."

Fittipaldi, who is ninth in CART points this season, made his NASCAR Busch Series debut last year with Innovative Motorsports. He has competed in one Busch race this season and is scheduled to attempt to start four more races.

He qualified fifth at the Busch race at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis last month but dropped out midway with engine problems.

"Christian will be another bright new star in our sport," Petty Enterprises CEO Kyle Petty said. "It's exciting for us to have landed him. He's got tremendous experience and he's been very successful in every series he's raced in from Formula 3000 to F1 to CART.

"With our knowledge in this sport and his ability and experience as a driver, we're confident that he can win races and contend for championships in the near future."

Fittipaldi, the nephew of former F1 and CART champion Emerson Fittipaldi, has four top-five finishes this season in CART. His best finish was second at Laguna Seca Raceway in June.

Tracy's contract with Team Kool Green, which recently was purchased by Michael Andretti, expires after this season.

Forsythe also is reported to be trying to lure former CART champion Jacques Villeneuve back to the team from Formula One and field three cars next year for, presumably, Villeneuve, Tracy and either Patrick Carpentier or Alex Tagliani.

Fernandez is recuperating from injuries sustained in a multi-car accident at the Molson Indy Vancouver on July 28 and said he hopes to be back in the car next weekend when the series visits the Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Langhorne, who most recently competed in the Toyota Atlantic Series, will drive the No. 55 Dallara/Chevrolet with sponsorship from Grill2Go.

Langhorne passed his IRL rookie test at Texas Motor Speedway in June and was approved to drive this weekend after a successful test last Friday at Kentucky Speedway.

Schmidt also will continue to field the No. 20 car for Henderson resident Richie Hearn.

Renna subbed for Al Unser Jr. for two races, finishing 10th and fourth, while Unser was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse. Unser will return to the IRL this weekend in Kentucky.