2022 Daytona 500: Jacques Villeneuve, Team Hezeberg clinch their spot
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jacques Villeneuve has won a Formula 1 title and the Indianapolis 500.
So qualifying his way into the 2022 Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX) field wasn’t the biggest moment of his racing career. But for the 50-year-old Villeneuve, it was a big moment Wednesday when he locked into Sunday’s race on speed at Daytona International Speedway.
And this wasn’t just making the Daytona 500. Villeneuve will race for a European-owned team that has partnered with Reaume Brothers Racing, an organization that has scraped along in the Xfinity and trucks the past five years.
Villeneuve has competed in four Cup races and failed to make the Daytona 500 in 2008, his only previous attempt to qualify for NASCAR’s biggest event.
"Obviously, it’s not a win," Villeneuve said. "It’s not like winning the Indy 500 [in 1995] or the F1 championship [in 1997], 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."
Where does making Daytona 500 rank for Villenueve?
After practice Tuesday, Villeneuve seemed pretty convinced that he would have to race his way in rather than getting in on qualifying speed. But as one of the two fastest "open" cars among the six drivers vying for the four remaining spots in the field, he now knows he will be in the Daytona 500.
"It is stressful because when you get into qualifying on a speedway, you're stuck with the car you have," Villeneuve said. "There's very little you can do. ... It's not fully in your hands. And that's a stress that I'm not used to.
"I'm used to having stress, and sometimes you make a mistake, and you hate yourself for it. But it's your mistake."
Jacques Villeneuve discusses the biggest changes in cars
Villeneuve didn’t make any mistakes in qualifying, and he seemed to take it all in stride. Others associated with the effort seemed more wide-eyed. Loris Hezemans, son of the team owner, was thrilled. Hezemans, the two-time NASCAR Euro Series champion, will drive for the team later this year, once he is approved to race at NASCAR’s top level.
Villeneuve drives for the Hezemans team, Team Hezeberg, in Europe and won a couple of races last season. He agreed to help the team in its Cup venture.
"We’re so humbled by it, and for the future of our team, it will really show potential sponsors and other teams what we are capable of and progress from here," Hezemans said.
Josh Reaume, who has spearheaded the effort, said that when he used to race go-karts as a kid, he wanted to dye his hair blonde to look like Villeneuve. Now he has guided the effort for Villeneuve to have another career moment.
"When I picked him up from the airport a while back to get him a seat poured, I’m like, ‘This is pretty crazy — fast-forward 20 years,’" Reaume said.
While the organization had been to several of the NASCAR tests, Reaume said it didn’t make him feel comfortable. NASCAR has changed some technical rules, which he thought might cost the team some of the speed it has found. But going to the tests was helpful for the team in understanding the car and the NASCAR tech process (even though they still failed tech twice prior to qualifying).
Jacques Villeneuve had to cover up his F-1 champion patch
They needed that testing time because while other organizations have made the jump from Xfinity or trucks to Cup, Reaume doesn’t have the wallet to invest or the success of others such as Kaulig Racing.
"But we can get there, right?" he said. "One brick at a time. These are the moments that force you to make those cold calls to find those partners and continue to push and push and push to build a race team."
Reaume and everyone with the team will relish the moment. Villeneuve certainly will. He has shown that in some ways he still has "it."
"It’s amazing," he said. "It’s satisfying and amazing because there’s quite a few times where I’ve been hearing, ‘OK, come on. You’ve passed it. Just give it up.’
"And, no, the hunger has never stopped, and experience is only a big help until the day where, I guess, you start getting your foot off the throttle because you get a little bit scared or you don’t get that adrenaline rush anymore."
For NASCAR and the Daytona 500, Villeneuve’s presence likely will only add to an event that has momentum, with all tickets sold coming off a preseason spectacle two weeks ago at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
"When I was in F1, I didn’t think I would be able to drive anything else," Villeneuve said. "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."
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Thinking out loud
NASCAR made a rule change late Tuesday night to keep teams from having their cars significantly skewed. During practice, the cars were "crabbing" down the straightaways; in other words, they were going straight, but the bodies were slanted.
While that could make the cars more difficult to handle, they also could make more speed with that alignment.
NASCAR didn’t want teams doing that because the cars look silly racing that way. So they made a rule change to limit a team’s ability to create skew and still meet NASCAR’s technical rules.
While making a rule change during a race weekend can be frustrating (teams come expecting a certain set of rules), NASCAR did the right thing. It couldn’t have its biggest race of the year — and its first with the Next Gen car — featuring cars with that strange look. The alternative to not making a change was too big a risk.
Social spotlight
They said it
"It would be even more special if we could win the duels ... and go on Sunday and win the 500." — Kyle Larson after winning the Daytona 500 pole
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
