R?ikk?nen to drive in NASCAR

And apparently Kimi enjoyed the first test!!
 
I just want him to stay in WRC, cause I enjoy watching him race there.
My thoughts, too. I don't enjoy watching most NASCAR races because I just can't get interested in the oval races. WRC, however, is quite fun to watch. I'll miss him there.

I do love me some Kimi, though, so maybe I'll have to tune in to one of the races they run on road courses sometime. I guess this kinda means he's bringing a fanbase with him? Hee hee.
 
Kimi's first Nascar race:
Raikkonen's just finished his first Nascar race and in my opinion he did extremely well.
All throughout the day a lot of people including race winner Kyle Busch had problems with very loose race cars.
Kimi's car was no exception, he was very sideways in practice on numerous occasions but managed to save it.
He qualified somewhere near the back, and at the start of the race he hung out there for a while.
Due to pit strategy, he briefly ran in about the 5th or 6th spot, but after the next pit stop he was somewhere in the neighborhood of 10th to 17th.
Many very experienced drivers including Kyle Busch had enough trouble with loose conditions that they spun out.
Kimi managed very well for his first ever time by finishing 15th.
 
Last edited:
Wow, 15th first time out? That's damn good.
 
How many points did he get? I cant tell, Nascars website is very confusing
 
I don't think he got any points, I don't believe that one-off entries can score. Trevor Bayne was entered as a one-off for the Daytona 500 and he won it, but he got no points for that.
 
Damn cautions ruined that truck race. Kimi had some problems with re-starts, because it took about 5 laps to get on good pace. So without so many cautions Kimi would have been easily in top 10.

There is rumours that Kimi may drive Nationwide in next weekend.
 
The reason why Bayne didn't score points from his win in Daytona is not it being a one-off per se (and he did quite a few of the early season races), the reason is that he has decided to enter the Nationwide series this year (since he has a full year deal for that series) and therefore he does not score points in his Sprint Cup events (or Trucks, should he race those).

NASCAR.com has not updated their points pages but according to speed.com Kimi did indeed score points and he is now shown in 35th in the Truck Series championship (from 72), so he apparently has entered the Trucks series for the year. That kinda makes sense if he wants to do more races in Trucks this year.

3am was a bit early for me so I watched the replay of the race this morning (with absolutely horrible finnish commentary I should add). The race was OK, quite a lot of cautions but some reasonably good racing as well. Kimi did pretty well, kept his nose mostly out of trouble although there were few pretty touchy moments that could have ended in tears and few brushes with the wall. He clearly needs more time in the car. I hope we'll see him in Nationwide next week and in more truck events during the WRC summer break...
 
Perky Jerky! :lol:
[video=youtube;-uqQH6ucjLw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqQH6ucjLw&feature=related[/video]
 
Last edited:
So whats the difference between Truck and Nationwide car other than aerodynamics?
 
So whats the difference between Truck and Nationwide car other than aerodynamics?

The easiest is one has a truck body the other has a car body. Aside from the body, there's few differences. I think the Nationwide car may have a slightly shorter wheelbase and doesn't weigh as much as the truck.

Truck
NASCAR+Camping+World+Truck+Series+200+6BYoi12qWVyl.jpg


Car
nationwidecarstest000.jpg


The fact that both of those pictures are of Roush-Fenway teams sponsored by the same company is completely coincidental.
 
The cars may or may not be very different, I don't know, I would think it's best to listen to what the drivers have to say.
However the competition I think is much stronger in the Nationwide series than it is in the Truck series.
 
Top