Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Christian thrown to NASCAR’s lions

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 | 9:36 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.

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Christian Fittipaldi knew he had to try his hand at NASCAR Winston Cup racing the moment he witnessed his first race in person last spring at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The former Formula One and current CART driver, who will attempt to make his Winston Cup debut in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, just didn't think it would happen so quickly.

Fittipaldi was not supposed to make his Winston Cup debut until next year after signing a three-year deal this summer to drive for Petty Enterprises. When PE driver Jerry Nadeau was injured in a go-kart accident last month, car owner Kyle Petty elected to put Fittipaldi in the No. 44 Dodge this weekend.

He tested last week at PIR in the car and impressed Petty with his lap times in the 28-second range in race trim.

"Christian has been successful in Formula One and successful in CART, and we think he is going to be very successful in Winston Cup, too," Petty said. "He has adjusted to these big stock cars pretty quickly and has tested well everywhere we have gone with him.

"His Phoenix test last week was really good, and he is going to have a good weekend."

Fittipaldi, 31, has competed in three NASCAR Busch Series races during the past two seasons for Innovative Motorsports and qualified fifth for the race at Gateway International Raceway in July. After watching car counts dwindle in the CART series and several teams defect to the rival Indy Racing League, Fittipaldi elected to move to NASCAR full-time a little sooner than he had anticipated.

"I always thought that I was going to do (NASCAR), but never in the stage in my career that I'm at," Fittipaldi said. "Then I started realizing that either it has to be done right now to do it properly or later on you can't do it because it's too hard, too competitive, so I definitely had to do it right now.

"A bunch of different factors directed me to go and do it now. If I said (CART's troubles) had nothing to do with it, I'd be lying. That helped. But, also, if you want to be with the highest form of auto racing that there is in this country, you have to be with NASCAR at the moment."

Although he has run only a few races in a stock car, Fittipaldi said his comfort level is high for this weekend's event at the 1-mile Phoenix oval. The nephew of two-time Formula One World Champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi made his oval-track debut at Phoenix in the 1995 CART race here.

"We ran good in the test and I think we're going to be well prepared for the race," Fittipaldi said. "We want to run strong; there's no doubt about it. It's not that we're going into the race just to start the engine up, run it and get out of there. We want to try to be as competitive as we can but at the same time I'm definitely looking forward to finishing the race.

"I guess the learning curve is steep and at the same time you're competing against people that have been doing this for 10 years -- every single week for the last 10 years. Plus, the cars are so different ... it's just like a different type of talent required in order to go fast in a NASCAR. "

Fittipaldi, who took seventh at last weekend's 500-mile CART race at California Speedway and will conclude his open-wheel career next weekend in Mexico City, said he is looking forward to concentrating solely on NASCAR next season. He is scheduled to compete in selected Winston Cup, Busch and ARCA races next year in preparation for a full-time Winston Cup ride with Petty Enterprises in 2004.

"It's not good when you keep jumping around from one (series) to the other," Fittipaldi said. "From next year onward, it's going to be full-time NASCAR so that's going to be a lot different and in a lot of ways, less difficult."

Evernham bought into Ultra Motorsports this season to provide a ride for Atwood, who drove the No. 19 Evernham Motorsports Dodge last season but was replaced this year by Jeremy Mayfield.

"Jim and I formed this team at the end of last season to give Casey some additional seat time in Winston Cup," Evernham said. "Without Casey driving the number seven, there was no reason for us to continue our relationship."

Evernham said Atwood would not drive this week, but would pilot Evernham's No. 91 Dodge, the team's research and development car, in next weekend's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Leffler has spent this season driving the No. 2 Dodge truck for Smith in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Kevin Harvick, who is running the NCTS, Busch Series and Winston Cup races this weekend, qualified third, Terry Cook was fourth and series points leader Mike Bliss was fifth. Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan, who finished third last weekend at California Speedway, struggled in qualifying and was 23rd.

Crawford trailed Bliss by 68 points going into today's race.

Force leads teammate and employee Tony Pedregon by 31 points in the Funny Car standings and can claim his 10th consecutive title and 12th overall as long as he wins as many rounds as Pedregon. As he has maintained for the past month, Force said there are no "team orders" in play to allow Force to capture the championship.

"Bottom line, we're racing (for the championship)," Force said. "Why wouldn't we? We've locked up the championship for Castrol, Ford and all our other sponsors.

"Tony deserves his shot. I never like to lose but if they can beat us, then I'll settle for being a happy car owner."

The Top Fuel (Larry Dixon), Pro Stock (Jeg Coughlin Jr.) and Pro Stock Motorcycle (Angelle Savoie) championship all were clinched Oct. 27 in Las Vegas.

Stars of Tomorrow founder Bryan Herta, a former karting champion and CART driver, said CART's increased involvement will aid the series in producing young American open-wheel drivers -- as do its European and South American counterparts -- and set them on a clearly defined path to CART or Formula One.

"I think we're finally in a position to claim true status as a karting championship along the lines of those championships in other countries," said Herta, who owns the Xplex Las Vegas karting center near Sloan.

The Xplex is hosting the Stars of Tomorrow season-ending Grand Nationals today through Sunday.