INDIANAPOLIS -- Jacques Villeneuve is ready to make an IndyCar comeback. Cheap New York Knicks Jerseys . Schmidt Peterson Motorsports said Wednesday it has hired Villeneuve to race in this years Indianapolis 500, 19 years after the Canadian driver first drank the milk in Victory Lane. "IndyCar is growing again and thats why last year when I started watching races again, every time I watched I felt almost angry I wasnt there," the 1995 race winner said on a satellite hookup from France during a news conference held at the teams Indy headquarters. At age 42, Villeneuve seemed content being a television analyst, musician and RallyCross driver. But when Schmidt and co-owner Rick Peterson, also from Canada, made a serious offer, he couldnt refuse. The 500 is scheduled for May 25. Villeneuve certainly has a compelling resume. As an Indy rookie in 1994, he qualified fourth and finished second to Al Unser Jr., and was named the races rookie of the year. The next season, the reigning CART rookie of the year was even better. He qualified fifth at Indy, forced Scott Goodyear into a costly mistake on the final restart and eventually held off Christian Fittipaldi to become the first and only Canadian winner of the race. Villeneuve completed all 400 laps at Indy in those two starts and won the 1995 CART title, too. But after starting 33 races, winning six poles and five races in two IndyCar seasons, Villeneuve had a chance to become an international star. So he headed to Europe and joined Formula One -- the series that made his late father, Gilles, a household name. Like his dad, who died in a 1982 F1 qualifying crash, Villeneuve excelled on the world stage. In 163 career starts between 1996 and 2006, the younger Villeneuve reached the podium 23 times, won 11 races, 13 poles and claimed the 1997 world championship. At that point, American open-wheel racing wasnt even on the radar. His journey back to North America began in 2007 when Villeneuve made the move to American stock cars. Over the next seven seasons, he dabbled in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Le Mans series as well as sports cars. Villeneuve regained interest in IndyCars last season as he watched how close and competitive the races had become. To him, it reminded him of the series he left almost two decades earlier. Suddenly, he was interested in making a return -- if he could find the right car and the right team. "To get this opportunity is a gift," Villeneuve said. "A lot of people say when you have kids, you slow down. I want my kids to see me race." Schmidt is the winningest team owner in Indy Lights history and already employs two full-time drivers in the better-known IndyCar series -- Russias Mikhail Aleshin and Frances Simon Pageland. In previous years, Schmidt has always found a way to compete at Indy. Getting Villeneuve might be the biggest coup of all for his low-budget team. "Indy is a special place. We go there not to exist but to win the race," Schmidt said. "To see a guy that finished second and finished first there, I dont think hes going to have any problem going back." Villeneuve becomes the fifth 500 winner on this years entry list. The others are three-time winner Helio Castroneves of Brazil, two-time winner Scott Dixon of New Zealand, 2000 winner Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Brazils Tony Kanaan, the defending champ. Another trip to Victory Lane would give Villeneuve two more milestones. He would break Al Unsers record for the longest gap between first and last victories. Unser went 17 years between his first Indy crown in 1970 and his record-tying fourth win in 1987. Villeneuve also would break Gordon John****s record for the longest gap between first and second wins at Indy, 1973 and 1982. Villeneuve isnt motivated by records. He wants to win. "Im a racer," he said, explaining he does not plan to retire anytime soon. "Ive got to find ways to get better and better and better, and Im going there with a team thats very experienced and has been very successful as well." nfl jerseys china . The Spurs announced on Monday that they have re-signed Matt Bonner. cheap nfl jerseys . Atletico built a provisional three-point advantage over Barcelona before the defending champion hosts Elche on Sunday. Barcelona then visits Atletico in the following round. "We will have to wait and see if Barcelona wins tomorrow to stay leader, as it is accustomed to doing," Atletico coach Diego Simeone said.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry Fraser wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! For the love of holy hockey - I dare you to explain the charging call against Carl Hagelin at 12:37 in the first of the Stars-Rangers game. The goalie charged out, Hagelin touched the puck first and had nowhere else to go! Im BAFFLED and seething, obviously. Sean Sean: While I cant say that Im "baffled" by the charging penalty called against Carl Hagelin for his contact on Stars goalie Richard Bachman, I suggest you and I both need to take a deep breath and offer up a prayer for our love of holy hockey. In my opinion, the penalty call (video link) was an overreaction from a League directive issued to the referees following the body check Milan Lucic delivered on Ryan Miller. This combined with a less than optimum position established by the referee to produce an error in judgment on the play. Its no secret that the referees have been placed on high alert with regard to protecting the goalkeeper. I think most of us agree there should never be "open season on goalkeepers" as Lindy Ruff once suggested was the case. I believe that all deliberate or unnecessary contact on the goalkeeper, either inside or outside of their goal crease, should be penalized appropriately under Rule 69 - interference on the goalkeeper or Rule 42 - charging, so long as goalkeeper embellishment and retaliation is also penalized when it happens. An important component of the spirit and language of both of these rules was lost when Carl Hagelin wasnt credited for throwing on the brakes and attempted to avoid the goalkeeper; "Incidental contact, at the discretion of the Referee, will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonaable effort to avoid such contact. jerseys from china. " This was a three way race, from start to finish, for a loose puck well outside the goal crease between Stars goalkeeper Richard Bachman, defenceman Alex Goligoski and the Rangers speedster Carl Hagelin. There was no deliberate or even unnecessary contact with Bachman. Contact with Bachman by both his own player, Goligoski and Hagelin was unavoidable and a byproduct of the race finish line. Some form of contact was inevitable given the simultaneous convergence on the puck. At this point all three players ran out of real estate. Carl Hagelin was the only player that made at least some effort to minimize or avoid impact by throwing on the breaks and turning his back to pull up. This action constitutes "a reasonable effort to avoid such contact" as stated in the rule. There is one final point that I wish to make and that involves the position from which the referee viewed the play. When televising a hockey game the producer/director will offer the best camera "angle" to adequately capture a play. Sometimes it even takes three or four different camera angles to provide you with the best, most accurate view of a play. The referee and linesmen only have one camera angle from which to make a decision. That one look comes from the angle they set up for themselves in advance of the play. The referee made this call from a deficient position almost parallel to the contact. From this location Carl Hagelin, as the player closest to the referee, was directly in the refs sight line. This did not provide the best overall perspective to see Goligoski and even Bachman and their parts in the contact. Had an angle been established by the referee from closer toward the goal line, clearer vision of the play would have resulted and I believe without overreacting a different assessment would have taken place. cheap jerseyscheap jerseys from china ' ' '
