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INDYCAR: Barrett Changes Direction
Going against the popular trend, Stanton Barrett is leaving NASCAR for open wheel and jumping into the IndyCar Series for 2009 with a new team.
Robin Miller  |  Posted September 25, 2008   Indianapolis, Ind.
Stanton Barrett (LAT photo)

Going against the popular trend, Stanton Barrett is leaving NASCAR for open wheel and jumping into the IndyCar Series for 2009 with a new team that plans to operate more on efficiency than cubic dollars.

Barrett, a veteran of both the Sprint Cup and Nationwise series for the past 15 years, will be make the official announcement Friday at Kansas City that he’s driving for 3G Racing.

Based in Indianapolis at the westside shop of Greg Beck, 3G is the product of Steve Sudler, Barrett and Beck and stands for 3 Guys Racing.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Indy cars and open wheel, back when I was a kid and my dad and Paul took me to the races,” said Barrett, whose godfather in Paul Newman and whose father (Stan) was a big-time Hollywood stunt driver who also helped launch the Skoal Bandit NASCAR program. “I’ve spent 18 years in NASCAR and I went into it because I thought it was more talent driven, but now it’s so expensive and the cars are so different, and I got this chance with 3G so I took it.”

At 35, Barrett is pretty old to be a rookie and has limited road racing experience but he’s undaunted.

“I’m older, but I can still compete and age is irrelevant in my opinion,” he continued. “I’m still on top of things physically and mentally and I know all the ovals we’ll be running. Plus, I love road racing, that was one of the big draws for me and I think those races are embraced by sponsors.

”I also think I’m humble enough to know it’s going to be a big learning curve.”

Barrett, who tried to put an Indy-only deal together a couple times in the mid-’90s, plans to still run the Daytona 500 and some selected Nationwide events that don’t conflict with the IndyCar schedule.

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