Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and past F1 and CART champion, on Saturday added NASCAR race winner to the list.
Villeneuve, 50, won in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at Autodromo di Vallelunga in Italy. He overcame a 5-second penalty for jumping the start and went on to beat closest rival Vittorio Ghirelli to the checkered flag by 6.3 seconds.
The race was an 18-lap affair on the 14-turn, 2.5-mile Autodromo di Vallelunga circuit. It's a circuit definitely to Villeneuve's liking, as he finished second there in 2020.
“Finally, it’s been a long time coming," Villeneuve said in a published article on the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series website. “We have been fighting at the front a lot and the car was good in Qualifying. We had a hard time in free practice, but in qualifying the car was really amazing. I didn’t have to lift on the outside of turn 1. I just went for it and Alon lifted it.”
Villeneuve, who won 11 times in a Formula 1 career that lasted from 1996 until 2006, also won five times in Indy cars. Villeneuve is in his third season in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Previously, he's started four times in the NASCAR Cup Series, nine times in Xfinity and seven times in the Truck Series.
His last NASCAR Cup Series start came in 2013 at Sonoma for team owner James Finch. There, Villeneuve completed just 19 of 110 laps before exiting with engine trouble.
Villeneuve, now ninth in the season standings in Europe, spent much of the race on Saturday battling three-time Euro NASCAR champion Alon Day. Day in 2017 became the first Israeli driver to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series when he raced at Sonoma.
