Kimi Raikkonen races in NASCAR in Austin

On the last weekend of March, Kimi Raikkonen returns to the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to compete in the Austin NASCAR Series.

Last year, the retired Finnish F1 driver reflected on his NASCAR experience in 2011 and performed well in a road race at Watkins Glen. Without the accident, which was not his fault at all, Kimi had a chance to finish in the top ten.

After that race, the team did not rule out continuing the collaboration with Raikkonen as part of the Project 91 program. When Kimi carried out intensive tests in August last year to adapt to the car and get to know the new circuit for him , then they decided to do it without any or special training this time, because the circuit of Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is well known to him. He has performed there many times, winning the US Grand Prix in 2018 and climbing to the podium the year before.

“The time spent in NASCAR, I really enjoyed it. I had to learn a lot in a short time, but everyone helped me a lot, says Raikkonen. – The level of competition is very high in this series, but this time I will be driving on a familiar track, so I don’t have to master so much.

I just want to have fun, but at the same time I will try to handle the matter the best I can. I’m sure there are many drivers who want to try NASCAR, but it’s not that simple. Maybe my performance in this series will open doors for other Europeans in the future.”

“Last year when we announced Kimi, I said he was a world-class superstar, which is what I had in mind when we developed our Project 91,” continued Justin Marks, founder and co-owner of Trackhouse Racing. – I think everyone saw how enthusiastically the fans all over the world reacted to this, and the skill Kimi demonstrated was a confirmation of the correctness of our idea.

Kimi has a huge fan base and that’s great for both NASCAR and our team. I also think that Kimi likes such races very much.

COTA Circuit will host the sixth round of the NASCAR season on March 26.