The NASCAR race in Austin with the participation of Formula 1 stars of the recent past has ended, and it should be noted that Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button somehow fulfilled their duties. Finn almost surpassed it, but better to wait for the story of his impressions and the comments of his Trackhouse Racing team.
He finished 29th, but moved up to 4th position in some points and ran in the top ten for a few laps. One of the most important skills in NASCAR is the ability to navigate the rush of restarts, and Kimi managed to regain positions in some cases, but lost them in others. In addition, his team reported during the race that the diffuser was damaged on the #91 Chevrolet, which also affected the pace.
For three restarts before the end of the race, Raikkonen was in 14th, before the penultimate – 18th, but shortly before the finish he was not lucky, he got into a blockade, one of the rivals crashed into his car and sent him into a U turn. Kimi finished in 26th place, and on the last restart he lost a few more.
Still, it is worth noting that Kimi led the race quite competently and confidently, in most cases he managed to avoid incidents, which was more than enough, and his team chose the right tactics.
Jenson just wanted to finish in his debut race, and he not only completed all 68 laps of the famous Texas track, but finished six positions higher than he started, ie took 18th place.
He acted quite carefully during the race, trying not to get into dangerous situations, although most of the time he drove outside the top twenty, but in the situation where Kimi was unlucky, he just managed to get ahead. The main thing is that Button has gained valuable experience that will still be useful to him, because this season he plans to hold three races on ordinary tracks, and only the first of them is behind him.
Admittedly, during the broadcast, Button and Raikkonen were rarely in the picture, as they rode mainly in the depths of the pack, while there was a constant tense battle for leadership, and it is quite logical that the director preferred to let see what was happening there in the foreground.
As a result, Tyler Reddick, the driver of the 23XI Racing team, who drives Toyota, took a nice and well-deserved victory in Austin. He was in the lead for more than half the distance and battled first with one rider, then another, but showed real perseverance and aggressiveness and crossed the finish line first.
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.
