Villeneuve enjoys Talladega test

Villeneuve continued to show progress on his second day at the 2.66-mile oval driving the Car of Tomorrow and set the third fastest lap in the morning drafting session, the best among the Toyota drivers.

While he wasn't as fast in the final session of the week, he said he enjoyed sharing the track and working in the draft with the Nextel Cup regulars during the two-day test with Bill Davis Racing.

"The test has been going great and it has been a lot of fun to get out there with so many talented drivers," Villeneuve said. "To be running in the middle of the pack with them is great and the fact that they trust me enough to stay behind me is good.

"The first day we were in the pack with several other cars and someone started to slow down up front, it got a little messy there for a moment, but nothing bad happened. I have just been trying to learn the draft and learn what the other cars are doing. Overall it has been a lot of fun."

The Canadian said he was satisfied with the work they were able to complete with his team over the two days, trying out different set-ups on the car. He praised his crew for being very open to his input despite his lack of NASCAR experience.

"It's great to have the experience of 'Slugger' on the radio because he has seen all of this many times before," Villeneuve added. "But the whole team has been great and they are very open-minded.

"They just want to make sure that I learn everything. Sometimes we'll make a bunch of changes to the car just to see what it will do and not all of them will be good changes - it is to help me learn about what the car will do and how it will react."

His crew chief Richard 'Slugger' Labbe was again impressed by Villeneuve, and was happy to point out that the NASCAR rookie came out of Talladega without making any enemies on the track, instead making many friends in the Nextel Cup garage.

"He's been doing a great job throughout the test and he has been able to spend a lot of time out in the draft pack," Labbe said. "Thankfully he hasn't made too many enemies and mainly just made friends out there. There has been a lot of time spent with him out there just learning the draft.

"He's done very well in the Car of Tomorrow and performed well in all the draft sessions. He's really made some solid runs in this test and has been very impressive. I couldn't be any happier with what's going on right now."

Villleneuve is scheduled to compete at Talladega on October 5 in an ARCA RE/MAX Series event, the same race that Juan Pablo Montoya competed in last year when he made his stock car debut.