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Old 5 Oct 2000, 06:34 (Ref:41162)   #1
Joe Fan
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Joe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJoe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
I am glad that Cal Wells has gotten that "open wheel drivers are superior" theory out of his head and picked a decent driver (who has also paid his dues in stock cars) for his McDonald's team that is moving up to Winston Cup next year. I would almost bet that Andy outperforms his teammate Scott Pruett next year.
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Old 5 Oct 2000, 19:04 (Ref:41293)   #2
Heeltoe6
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Heeltoe6 should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Don't you think that's a cheap shot Joe. I think Cal more wanted to kep Scott in his organization, but didn't want him in a champcar, so to Nascar it was. PLus, Scott really was getting up there(for champcars), and likes doing R/D(did Firestone and then Toyota), so starting of a new cup team was another challenge for him. But I don't think his selection was any result of Well's determination Pruett was superior to anyone out there. Plus, ask the question: what well established stock car driver was gonna sign on with a new OW guy?
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Old 6 Oct 2000, 04:46 (Ref:41385)   #3
Joe Fan
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Joe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJoe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Heeltoe, that was apparently Cal Wells thinking because why did he pick two inexperienced (in terms of stock car racing) open wheelers for his rides? One has been canned and the other was given the directive to produce in the second half or be canned too. A.J. didn't have any trouble finding stock car drivers for his car--twice this season. It all comes down to money and opportunity which quite a few drivers in BGN or NCTS would have jumped up just for the experience and exposure if nothing else--and they probably would have done much better than Pruett has to boot..
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Old 6 Oct 2000, 16:33 (Ref:41472)   #4
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I wonder if Pruett was under contract at the time? Either way, they had a previous relationship, I'm sure that was the r4eason. He just didn't pick any random open wheeler, both Pruett and Lazarro were in PPI before. You know how everyone likes chemistry? Well they though that would be better than having to both learn a new type of racing and how to communicate with a new driver. Obviously, it failed

AJ's situation is different because he had run Nascar before, and didn't "steal" a sponsor and there wasn't all that negativity. And how many drivers had ole AJ gone through
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Old 8 Oct 2000, 20:32 (Ref:41832)   #5
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Joe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJoe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Heeltoe, did you see where Andy, in only his second Winston Cup start, qualifed for the race at Charlotte but his teammate Scott Pruett couldn't this weekend?
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Old 9 Oct 2000, 01:00 (Ref:41856)   #6
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So. I didn't say Pruett was better(he's not), but that I don't think that was the reason Wells picked him
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Old 9 Oct 2000, 21:13 (Ref:42055)   #7
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Andy has already outperformed him, in just two or three races. I don't have anything against Pruett, from every indication, he seems like a nice individual, and I'll bet, especially since he and his wife just recently had a child, he feels much more comfotable with the "family" atmosphere of NASCAR as opposed to the "international playboy" atmosphere of cart. This being said, Wells did a great disservice to Pruett by putting him directly into Cup. This was akin to throwing him to the wolfs! He should have taken Pruett one step at a time, a year on the NASCAR Slim Jim All-Pro, NASCAR Featherlite Southwest, NASCAR Revco Northwest, or NASCAR ReMaxx Series, or ARCA, Hooters ProCup, or ASA Series. Then if he did well enough, a year in Busch, then after he had proven himself, and adapted too stock cars, a shot at a Winston Cup ride. He would have faired much better this way. The best thing Wells could do at this point, for Pruett, would be to get any cart people that are working on the Winston Cup effort out of it, and find, not steal, some experienced stock car personel to work on his team. Houston is an up and comming hard charger, and should do well. Pruett will take a couple more years, I predict 3 to 5 years before he gets to the level that Houston is at now, in stock cars. I honestly do not believe that Scott Pruett ever had the "open-wheel superiority complex", he is just too nice and too humble a person, I do think, because of several statements that he has made, that this was a much harder transition than he expected, but I don't think that he had the attitude that say Robby Gordon had, "I'm a cart driver, I'll walk away with everything these dumb hillbilly rednecks have, I'll show them how to drive a race car", when he came into NASCAR. As for Wells, yeah, he really had the attitude, and rightly, and much to my delight and agreement, had that attitude shoved up his a$$! Other indy-type car drivers would do well to pay attention to the plights of Pruett and Gordon before thinking that they can just jump into Winston Cup, and because of their open-wheel success, think that they will be handed the Winston Cup. All of their open-wheel/road-racing experience and skills, and especially their "superiority attitude" doesn't mean squat in NASCAR!
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