WEEKEND HEADLINES:
1. Matt Kenseth off to great NASCAR start
2. Kimi’s NASCAR debut coming Friday
3. Rain stops Indy practice; Canadian results
Kimi Räikkönen to make NASCAR debut
Almost lost in the shuffle of the weekend’s racing, and still only getting a 15-second mention here or a brief mention there, is the fact that Kimi Räikkönen will be making his NASCAR debut this Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a NASCAR Camping World Series pickup truck race.
That’s right. You did not read that incorrectly.
Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 World Driving Champion, will race a truck for Kyle Busch’s team at Charlotte on Friday night and, if you’re interested, you can watch him either acquit himself as you would expect an F1 champion to do, or else make a fool of himself.
It could go either way.
Kyle Busch has been quoted as saying that he’s honoured Räikkönen chose his team for his NASCAR debut and that the ex-F1 star was "adamant" about running his first race at Charlotte.
I suppose it makes sense. If you’ve never done this sort of thing before – as was the case with another ex-F1 champ, our own Jacques Villeneuve – then the truck series is a good entry point. The trucks are built for safety and don’t go as fast as the Nationwide or Sprint Cup racing cars.
And since next weekend is the All-Star Weekend in Charlotte,, why shouldn’t a star take centre stage Friday night while all the other stars of NASCAR are also in town for their race Saturday.
I suggest Räikkönen will probably keep a low profile and drive to survive. If he makes it to the finish without crashing – a trick whenever the trucks race – he’ll consider it a success and start plotting a career change.
If he doesn’t finish, and doesn’t enjoy himself (as in, he’s piled up or winds up in one), it’s quite possible he’ll chalk it up to experience and move on back to Europe.
Whichever, it will be fun to watch. The truck race can be seen on SPEED Friday night at 8 o’clock.
Source: Auto Racing Blog
Courtesy: luieluv
