Cautiously optimistic

HAMPTON, Ga. – With the way things have gone for his three-car Nextel Cup program, it seems Ray Evernham's game plan for this season somehow got terribly lost in translation.

Kasey Kahne is mired in 20th place, Elliott Sadler in 25th and Scott Riggs a miserable 37th; it's almost as if Evernham has been talking Greek to his drivers and teams.

So Evernham will try speaking French. Maybe that will help – at least when it comes to new driver Patrick Carpentier.

The French-speaking native of Montreal, Canada, has been pegged to replace Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Dodge for the final two races of this season at Phoenix and Homestead, Fla., in what will be part of a warmup for Carpentier moving full-time to the Cup Series in 2008.

"It kept looking like Scott Riggs wasn't going to be back for next season and, quite honestly, Patrick impressed us so much," Evernham said Friday. "We took him testing, and he did well. We feel like he's a good racer."

Carpentier, who has made two Busch starts this year – including finishing second from the pole at Montreal – and one Cup start (all on road courses), will be here at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 to observe and continue his learning process.

"A year ago I was digging holes on my farm and now I'm in NASCAR," Carpentier told the Montreal Gazette two weeks ago. "It's just so unbelievable how all the planets have aligned for me in such a short time."

Carpentier has little to lose and everything to gain in coming to NASCAR. The same can be said for Evernham. After a year that has seen Kahne, Sadler and Riggs struggle, Carpentier is a breath of fresh air for the entire organization.

"He fit with our team," Evernham said. "He just clicked with the guys. I know it's taking a risk on everybody's part. But when you look out there, you can either go through and hire guys that you know where their performance level is at or you can take a chance.

"The neat thing about it is we've got a guy who really appreciates the opportunity, and he's a home run with the media. Patrick's brought a little bit of spark to the organization, and we're happy."

Carpentier, already being heavily tutored by the brain trust at Gillett Evernham Motorsports as well as other notables in the sport – including veteran Cup driver Ken Schrader – is the latest in the wave of foreign-born drivers from other series who will try to make it in the world of NASCAR.

Juan Pablo Montoya paved the way this season for the likes of Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, reigning Indy Racing League champ Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr.

"It's great the open-wheel guys are coming," Evernham said. "There's some really talented guys."

But just because Montoya has found some success in his rookie season this year doesn't necessarily guarantee immediate success for those open-wheel aces that will follow him.

"(Montoya) is just one of those guys that's special," Evernham said. "Juan Pablo is an extremely talented race car driver, so he might have made it look easy to those guys."

And that's something Villeneuve, Franchitti and Carpentier have to keep in mind. They need look no further than Hornish to see the downside of making the transition to Cup racing.

Hornish has yet to take a green flag in a Cup race, having failed to qualify for each of the first six Cup events he's entered over the last seven weeks, including his most recent failure Friday here at Atlanta. The struggles have cast doubts on whether Hornish will even become the driver for a third Penske team, as he could choose to stay in the IndyCar Series.

"It's tough, but we knew it was going to be tough," Hornish said after failing to qualify at Martinsville last weekend. "It’s frustrating, but we’ll keep working at it."

Said Hornish's teammate Kurt Busch: "It's been tough. I've expected more things from him and that (crew chief) Roy McCauley-led team. Yet, he hasn't broke through to get into a race."

Busch has made Hornish somewhat of a pet project, but as much as he's tried to be a mentor, his lone student continues to struggle.

"I am really doing the most that I can to help get him in these races," Busch said. "I am teaching him tires, grip and just the different nuances of a Cup car the best that I can."

If a driver with a resume as strong as Hornish's open-wheel vita can struggle so much, it becomes fair to keep a close eye on guys like Franchitti, Villeneuve and Carpentier to see if they also get off to slow starts in trying to adapt to stock car racing.

"As a driver that's not one of the good old boys, I'm from the outside," said Busch. "I just wish them the best of luck, because it's tough to break through and break in with being accepted when you're not a good old boy."

Carpentier may not be a good old boy in the true Southern sense, but when it comes to racing Evernham thinks his new driver nonetheless has the ability to mesh seamlessly into the NASCAR world and become a foreign "un garcon bien vieux" (French for "a good old boy").

"He knows he has a huge challenge but he is not going to let it intimidate him," Evernham said. "He has that inner confidence that he is going to get it done, and I like that."

Confidence, but also a sense of reality, as Carpentier is savvy enough to know not to expect too much, too soon.

"My goals for next year are just to run the guys and be part of them," Carpentier told the Gazette. "I know it's very competitive out there and very difficult to win, but the team has promised to work very hard to give me everything they can and I'm going to work extremely hard to give everything I have to race well and work with the others on the team.

"There's a lot to learn, but I'm really going to invest myself 200 percent and I'm looking forward to it."