Villeneuve

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jacques Villeneuve was 13 when he told his mother he wanted to be a race car driver.

Hesitant to let her son enter into a career that had claimed the life of his father just one year earlier, she cited poor grades as a reason to hold the youngster back.

So Villeneuve promptly improved his marks. It was one of the earliest indications of how determined he was to race cars, and he used that resolve to build a highly successful open wheel career.

He'll need that perseverance more than ever this year as Villeneuve embarks on the riskiest venture of his racing career. The former Formula One world champion has moved to NASCAR, where he's signed on with a fledgling team that's very short on sponsorship.

In many regards, this could be it for the French Canadian. If this venture fails — and it soon might if he doesn't find a sponsor for his Bill Davis Racing team — there's nowhere else for the 36-year-old driver to go.

If he's worried, Villeneuve isn't letting on.

"It can't fall apart. I won't let it," he said Thursday at media day for the Daytona 500. "Of course you are not in 100 percent control of what happens all the time, so if it does fall apart, I will just persevere."

It begins this weekend for Villeneuve, who will attempt to qualify his unsponsored car for the Daytona 500. If he's not among the fastest two in Sunday's time trials, he'll have to race his way into the field next week.

He's confident about his chances, even though he has a shell of a team working on his Toyota Camry. The financial limitations have him lagging behind the super teams, and even though his years of open-wheel success made him a very rich man, he's not prepared to finance this venture himself because he spent so much to get the operation off the ground late last year, and money is a little tight.

But Villeneuve claims he has a sponsor on the edge of commitment, a company just needing one final push to sign on the dotted line. This weekend could seal it, ensuring him a fully funded car for the entire 36-race schedule.

Still, it's frustrating for Villeneuve to even be in this position.

"This is where we should have been two months ago," he said. "It means we don't have all the guys we need. A lot of things were on the back burner because things slowed down and then got going again. A bunch of stuff that should have been done earlier, we'll now be doing between races.

"It's not ideal, but we don't have a choice and you just get on with it."