Harvick ponders contest to choose big driving prize
Operation Big Chance is still in the planning stages.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- There's "American Idol" for wannabe divas and rock stars. "The Apprentice" looks for a few good tycoons-in-waiting.
Now drivers wanting to grab fame and fortune have their own chance at creating a new reality: "Operation Big Chance."
There's no TV deal -- yet. And there's no tour, recording contract or job.
But Dollar General, a local race track and Kevin Harvick have teamed up to offer one driver from the historic Music City Motorplex something just as important with the chance to drive Harvick's truck in March 2007 at Martinsville in NASCAR's truck series.
Local truck racer Nicholas Formosa of Nashville called it an opening.
"This is the opportunity that everybody's working for, and everybody's going to be racing hard to get it," he said.
One-race ride
The prize is a one-race ride, not a season-long contract. But the lure of even one race on the lowest of NASCAR's three series is powerful because of the chance to attract the attention of someone looking for new talent.
"To be on the same track with all the great drivers out there and running with them and get the experience and the knowledge, it would take you a long way and help out your chances of going to the next level tremendously," said the 20-year-old Formosa, who has been racing at the Nashville track for five years.
For Harvick, he knows 99 percent of drivers don't get that chance. He remains appreciative of the chance Richard Childress gave the then-truck racer to drive a Busch car in 2000.
He had a similar idea a couple years ago that didn't work out and recently put Burney Lamar into his second Busch car for the 2006 season after seeing him race in a shootout at Irwindale, Calif.
Shakedown
"Big Chance" should shake out a similarly talented driver.
"That's the biggest question mark in the whole deal. If you can race for a championship at your local race track, you're a lot more qualified than a lot of the guys that have a lot of money and just buy their way into the sport," Harvick said.
"It is a different way of scouting. It is something where you're going to get a champion."
But "Operation Big Chance" isn't an act of charity.
Dollar General, which is based just north of Nashville in Goodlettesville, already advertises at the track that was once a regular stop on NASCAR's Grand National Series with drivers like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Bobby Hamilton are among the drivers who honed their skills here.
Executives had been talking with track promoter Joe Mattioli about how to attract drivers and fans. Mattioli thought back to a gimmick he used at Pocono to help introduce NASCAR to fans used to Indy cars by letting them vote for a favorite local short-track driver with the winner driving in the first race.
Dollar General, which sponsors Lamar's Busch car, brought on Harvick.
The competition is open to drivers in the track's top two series each Friday night: late models and super trucks. The driver with the most points at the end of the season wins the ride.
Dollar General is offering discounts on tickets to fans who want to watch.
"Our hope is that drivers from across the country who are looking to make that step from weekly racing to the big time will come out and play in our playground," Mattioli said.
Mattioli has inquiries from companies wanting to televise what the promoter calls "reality reality."
"It's kind of a cross between 'American Idol' and 'The Beverly Hillbillies' where you go from nowhere, here's somebody making their debut on a national stage," Mattioli said.
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