Jeff Gordon relishes the challenge and lifestyle of Formula One, but he knows visiting the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday is likely as close as he will get to racing's most prestigious circuit.
Gordon, 32, a four-time NASCAR champion and winner of the past two Nextel Cup races, is too far along in his career to make a switch now, especially considering the complexities of F1. But if Ferrari, which has won four consecutive titles with Michael Schumacher, came calling, there would be a decision to make.
"That one would be hard to turn down," Gordon told the Associated Press. "I think my sponsors and car owner would understand.
"Would I do the job Michael is doing? No. The years of experience that he had, the talent that he has, I think I would only want to be in that position if I had that much testing time, time to get into shape and enough time racing for the actual events."
Gordon has been the subject of F1 rumors since he and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson swapped cars with Juan Pablo Montoya of the Williams F1 team last summer for a television shoot at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Michael Andretti, the last American driver in F1, was fired in 1993 by his McLaren team before he finished the season.
Gordon enjoys spending off time in New York and F1, with races in Europe, Asia and other far-flung locales, would offer a more sophisticated workplace than NASCAR.
"We basically live in a bus," Gordon said. "The best cities we go to are Dallas, Miami and L.A. but (the tracks) are an hour away from those cities. It is a much different experience and a different lifestyle. I have seen people in the grandstands with suits on. You won't see that (in NASCAR)."
NEW ROLE: Two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves returned home May 2 to watch the racing team he owns compete in the Brazilian Stock Car V8 Championship. The circuit is patterned after the NASCAR Busch series, using Chevrolet Astras.
Castroneves' drivers, Adalberto Jardim and Juliano Moro, finished 15th and 19th, respectively, at a track in Taruma.
DEPARTED: Driver David Starr was granted his release from Holigan Racing's part-time Busch program to concentrate on his full-time duties in the NASCAR Truck series. Starr had not finished better than 24th in Holigan's No.50 Chevrolet.
"We are beginning to interview Cup and Busch drivers to finish the season for us and to help us continue to prepare for next year's full schedule," team owner Michael Holigan said.
DOUBLE DUTY: Nextel Cup regular Robby Gordon ran just 17 laps on the first day of Indy 500 practice on Sunday, working on setups for his primary and backup No.70 Chevrolet. Gordon, aiming for his 10th Indy start, went 215.317 mph in his primary car and 209.733 in the backup.
On May 30, Gordon will race in the Indy 500 in the afternoon and fly to Charlotte, N.C., for the Nextel Cup Coca-Cola 600. He has five top-10 finishes at Indy, his best fourth in 1999 when he led until his car ran out of gas with a little more than one lap remaining.
"(Sunday's) goal was to run both cars and not have any problems," he said. "It was a good function-check day, and that was Thomas' (Knapp, team manager/engineer) plan all along. We tried one new setup on the backup car and then went back to what we learned in the test here a week ago."
Monday, moments after completing his fastest lap of the day, Gordon hit the wall during practice. He wasn't injured.
Castroneves was the first driver to hit 220 mph this week, turning a lap at 220.300.
SPARK PLUGS: Petty Enterprises will test its No.45 (Kyle Petty) and a developmental No.44 Dodge at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., after Petty and Jeff Green (No.43) had engine failure May 2 at California.
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
