Kimi Raikkonen’s performance at the NASCAR round at Watkins Glen yesterday cannot be called a debut, as the Finn spent several races in this series in 2011. And yet, after such a long hiatus, everything was new to him, starting with the cars, as the NASCAR teams moved to a new generation of vehicles this year.
However, he adapted quickly and showed his best qualities last weekend – Raikkonen could always drive fast on almost anything that moves.
During yesterday’s race, Kimi stayed in the top ten for quite some time after starting from 26th position, and in the early stages of the race he was helped by skills in difficult conditions as the track dried up after rain forcing the start. be delayed for a long time.
But when the race started Kimi quickly got into the top ten and it seems the Trackhouse Racing team has developed a good tactic for him so the chance of a fairly high result was but it all ended in an accident in which he was an innocent victim.
However, Raikkonen fought hard on the track against NASCAR’s incumbents and, at one point in the race, held off the attacks of 2020 champion Chase Elliott, who also leads the drivers’ standings this season.
“I think Kimi did a great job,” Elliott says. “He was in the middle of the fight and seemed to feel at home. I just loved it!”
Kimi became the first racer the Trackhouse Racing team offered to participate in a kind of experiment called Project 91. The gist is that the team announces a third car to start and invite recognized world motorsport stars to drive it.
Talking about working with the Finnish driver, Darian Grubb, head of the team that worked with Raikkonen’s Chevrolet Camaro, emphasized that he literally understood everything: “It’s just incredibly cool, he’s worked really hard to prepare for the race. . Too bad it ended like this.
But Kimi literally learned on every lap. It was clear that during combat with experienced guys he quickly adopted their style of flying, noticing where they were going fast, where they were slowing down, and he was quite capable of going at their pace.
Kimi has already caught up well and all. I think he had a good chance of finishing in the top ten, so obviously he is a very capable student.”
According to Kimi, he enjoyed playing NASCAR, but it is not yet clear whether there will be a sequel to all this: “I have nothing against it. Everything is fine, the team is excellent and helped me a lot. It just didn’t end the way I wanted. I felt like we had great speed, especially after the pit stops, but maybe I was too aggressive with one of the tires.”
Trackhouse Racing plans to continue their Project 91 next year, with a third car that will start in six or eight races, including the Daytona 500.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
