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You can't really use Sears Point and Wadkins Glen as evidence of road racing being easier. Hardly any of the NASCAR regulars have any real road racing experience, so its inevitable that the results will throw up statistics like the Stewart / Newman ones Joe mentions.
Definately, Pruett and Robbie Gordon didn't impress in their rookie seasons, but they had to get used to the cars as well as the tracks (both had driven CART ovals for many years of course, as recently as 1999 Pruett took an oval pole at Fontana). As Lee pointed out, if you've driver single seater cars similar to those in CART, and are used to the road course element of the series, adapting to ovals is not a tough job for guys like Villeneuve, Castro Neves or Montoya, all of whom would be right at home in F1.
All the same, I doubt that there is any driver out there who could match Mario's allround skill- on road course and ovals of all types, in single seaters, sprots cars and stock cars. Not Schumacher. Not Jeff Gordon. Not Montoya. Not Da Matta. Not Stewart. No one.
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