Raikkonen to NASCAR?

[Wouter Melissen]

Read this today. He is not dropping WRC program and will start to race since summer in pickup division with a new team (ICE1 or something).

Like any gentleman racer, he is using his own money to go racing!

[Matra et Alpine]

Like Brooklands! Oh, wait

of course, you should know me by now

By "WE" I meant the intelligent ... at the time WORLD LEADING MANUFACTURERS of cars ....... SCOTTISH people.

The English built Brooklands bigger and faster coz they were upset we got their first

I think the reason that custom built went for ovals in the early days was that by banking they could get to much higher speeds and push the envelope of the 'race cars' of the day. All the other races were on open roads closed for the day. It took a massive rise in popularity and ownership before it made sense to build custom race tracks which looked like the good roads

[Badsight]

speeds & HP levels were so pitifull that trying to break 100 , then 160 then . . . . . . . . . were the milestones

but americans still worship at the oval altar

[Matra et Alpine]

When you read the motoring history books of the early 1900s getting them to go 100 MILES was pretty much ground breaking Mind you some of the roads the races were run on up here were "difficult" !!

THis was 1923

tbh I think it's good if he does it as I'm fed up with todays motor racers only ever doing one type of event. Time they broadened their skill base ............ oh wait it's NASCAR ....

[ScionDriver]

It's officially official and for real: Link

All I can say for sure is that I'm looking forward to him getting into it with a notoriously hot-headed driver and the interviewers asking Kimi about it and him just answering in his calm cool Finnish demeanor he always has. "Well you know, that is just a part of racing." while the NASCAR guy will be yelling in his Southern drawl "That boy don't know how to race!"

[MrMopar427]

If he goes to KBM, I hope Kyle Busch doesn't make him annoying like he [Kyle Busch] already is.

[RacingManiac]

Qualified 31st, finished 15th. Not too bad...avoided spinning the whole race...

[FastDriver]

its too bad that a lot of F1 drivers that try to do good in NASCAR aren't successful, its a different style of driving.

[culver]

The flow of F1 drivers to Nascar is both good and bad. Good because it will demonstrate that those "good ol' boys" can drive. But bad because it's further proof that Nascar, not Indy is the king of US racing. Indy, back in the day, at least could be considered at least somewhat on part with F1 technology.

Hopefully Indy's fall from grace isn't permanent.

[ErWin76]

Eventful day for Raikkonen.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giheWuPVYY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giheWuPVYY[/ame]

[faksta]

The flow of F1 drivers to Nascar is both good and bad. Good because it will demonstrate that those "good ol' boys" can drive. But bad because it's further proof that Nascar, not Indy is the king of US racing. Indy, back in the day, at least could be considered at least somewhat on part with F1 technology.

Hopefully Indy's fall from grace isn't permanent.

I would have followed Indy if they didn't drive on ovals or at least have cut them down to two-three races, as those races are boring to watch. Road races within the series are way better, though.

[culver]

I agree, they had too many ovals. I'm not at all against some. I think Indy is actually a good track and anyone who thinks ovals are easy is grossly misinformed. At the same time, there are way too many great road courses in the US alone to skip the road racing. I think the problem was finding venues that seat a large crowd. Most US road courses can't seat anywhere near as many people as the ovals. The ovals were also largely built to take advantage of the rise of NASCAR. Ovals, unlike most road courses are only used for big shows so it was probably a case where the ovals work well for the promoters and the series owners can get the dates they want etc.

Years back I watch the IRL cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I really didn't think it was cool seeing 3 cars go side by side for several laps in a row. A race at Road Atlanta would have been better.

[ScionDriver]

Here is a story speculating that Raikkonen is already going to move up and enter the Nationwide Series race at Charlotte: NASCAR: Kimi Raikkonen moves up one step to the NASCAR Nationwide series | Auto123.com

I also saw that some places are saying Kimi has said he'd quit rally and race NASCAR full time because he had so much fun. We'll see though, there's always lots of rumors.