Driver having difficult period

Michel Jourdain Jr. struggled to adjust to stock car racing.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Little has gone right since Michel Jourdain Jr. left a successful open-wheel career to join NASCAR's Busch Series.
As a rookie in 2005, the Mexico City native struggled to adjust to stock car racing -- where the vehicles are heavier and less agile, and the mostly oval track races last much longer.
The driver of the No. 15 Ford, Jourdain relies heavily on finesse and finished 40th or worse four times in his first 18 races. Sponsorship woes ended his season after 20 starts.
Still, the 29-year-old insists he doesn't regret making the move.
"If it were easy, everyone would do it," he said. "I knew it would be a big risk. But NASCAR represents the top of racing, and the top is where I want to be."
Debut
Jourdain made his debut this season in the Busch Series' third race at Mexico City, led late but carried into a wall and totaled his car after Kyle Busch swiped him while attempting to pass.
Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart started in open-wheel before thriving in NASCAR's top Nextel Cup series.
Jourdain stuck with the format long enough to become a standout. He was 19 when he became the youngest driver to compete in the CART Series, now Champ Car, driving at Long Beach in 1996, and he won CART's award as the most improved driver a year later.
His most memorable year came in 2003, when he won Champ Car races at Milwaukee and Montreal. In 152 career Champ Car starts, he had 25 top-10s and nine podiums.
Jourdain's lone top-10 finish in the Busch Series came at Atlanta last year. He ended up in 37th place in 2005, compared to 12th in the points standings his last year with Champ Car in 2004.
"Up until now, I haven't had the opportunity to go in all the races with good cars, and that hurt me a lot," Jourdain said. "I think that the day I can finally get that continuity, I will improve a lot."
Push to win fans
The Busch Series race in Mexico City is part of NASCAR's push to win fans in Mexico, where Champ Car and other open-wheel leagues long have been king. Jourdain said all it will take is a breakout Mexican driver in stock cars to convert his homeland.
"The public likes open-wheel because Mexican drivers have been successful there, in Indy, in Champ Car," he said. "The fans go where there are Mexican drivers."
Mexico's stock car star-in-the-making could be Jourdain, or another open-wheel veteran who ran in last week's Busch Series race at Mexico City, Adrian Fernandez.
"He and I have been at it the longest," Jourdain said. "He started first, but I've done more in stock cars."
Many drivers making the move from open-wheel to stock car are surprised how little leeway for mistakes the new format affords -- and just how crowded things can get on a track with 43 drivers.
The move Jourdain made last year is similar to that of Paul Tracy, an aggressive driver who won Champ Car's 2003 championship but signed on for five races with the Busch Series this year.
Frustrating
"It was very frustrating to watch him because I know he can do better than what he did," Tracy said of Jourdain. "But in NASCAR it's so, so competitive. You've got to be in a good car, you've got to do it at the right time and I think the timing was off for him."
In Jourdain's case, he is not the only one adjusting to serious change. The move to the Busch Series has meant uprooting his wife, Nora, and infant son Michel III, relocating the family full-time from Mexico to North Carolina.
Jourdain said his goal is to compete in Nextel Cup.
"Would you prefer to play in the big leagues or in the minors?" he asked.
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