Scott Speed 7th place in his first Stockcar outing

[Jims5543]

.... and he picks a super speedway to cut his teeth. I think he did a good job, for his 1st time out, better than Montoya did IIRC.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/motorracing/la-spw-hinton6oct06,1,267134.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-autoracing

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Formula One dropout Scott Speed and IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti didn't do badly Friday, considering they were driving the first stock car race of their lives.

Both were in the ARCA Re/Max 250 strictly to learn for their drastic career changes.

Getting some practice
Getting some practice
click to enlarge
Speed finished seventh after running as high as third before his Toyota's nose was slightly damaged as he almost avoided a late wreck. Franchitti finished 17th after running as high as eighth.

The race was won by Michael Annett in a Toyota. It was the first win for the Japanese manufacturer in ARCA, which is a steppingstone series to NASCAR.

Franchitti, who won this year's Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series season championship, will move to NASCAR full time next year to drive a Dodge for team owner Chip Ganassi.

So Franchitti has the most to learn on stock-car ovals, the fastest.

"It was a lot of fun out there," Franchitti said in the Scottish burr that has fascinated the stock-car crowd here all week. He'd never even sat in a stock car until Tuesday, when he was fitted for a seat.

"I'm disappointed with the result," he continued, "but what I learned out there you can't put a price on. I'm looking at the long game. I'm learning for next year."

As for Speed: "I definitely learned a lot, especially about the drafting."

Speed is the Californian who lost his Formula One ride in midseason this year but was given the stock-car alternative by his international Red Bull team. He'll run the ARCA series next year but has not yet formulated plans for NASCAR.

[Rearden]

Montoya finished 3rd last year in his ARCA debut.

Very impressive for Speed's first stock car race.