At the start of today’s NASCAR race in Austin, the cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button will be very close, although this was not the Finn’s first experience in the US touring car series, and the 2009 World Champion achieved his debut qualifying .
However, driving a Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang, he set the 24th fastest time on the COTA track out of 39 entrants, and Kimi had the 22nd result – driving the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro just 0.033 seconds faster than Jenson.
It is worth noting that at the same time, both were ahead of some of NASCAR’s honored masters such as Brad Kiselowski, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, who became series champions at one time.
“Certainly, this is all very different from what I used to be used to, but I’m having a lot of fun with it,” said Button. – I like this new experience, I learn a lot, because these cars are very heavy. In general, the process itself and everything that happens during the race weekend is very different.”
But Jenson is willing to admit that it will be much harder to stay ahead of veteran NASCAR drivers at 68 lap race distance: “Kevin Harvick, of course, raced everywhere and on everything in NASCAR. He didn’t do well in qualifying, but the race is a different story and he knows it.
At the distance of the race you cannot attack at full strength, because then you burn the rubber very quickly. But I’m already looking forward to it, it will be a real test. I will learn a lot in three and a half hours of racing.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
