Nelson Piquet Jr., who became the source of a recent scandal known as ‘crash-gate’, will be testing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with an eye towards a future in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series with in two years. Piquet Jr., will get behind the wheel of a Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing on October 12th. He is expected in the team’s Mooresville North Carolina shop Monday for a seat fitting. The Renault F1 team fired the 23-year-old Brazilian earlier this season for underperformance. Shortly after details emerged that Piquet had been ordered to cause a crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix that allowed his teammate Fernando Alonso to win. After an investigation and hearing, Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, held a hearing and banned Renault F1’s team boss Flavio Briatore for life and the team’s technical engineer Pat Symonds for five years. They also placed the team on a ‘suspended ban’ for two years. Piquet Jr., was given immunity from sanctions in exchange for his testimony and many in Formula One now consider the son of two time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet to be ‘damaged goods’.(SPEEDtv)(10-4-2009)
UPDATE: Piquet is understood to be eyeing a year in the Camping World Truck Series in 2010 followed by a year in the Nationwide Series in 2011, before moving to the headlining Sprint Cup Series in 2012.(Crash.Net)(10-5-2009)
UPDATE 2: Brazilian natives, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Vitor Meira will test a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra at Little Rock for Red Horse Racing. The one day test scheduled for Monday, October 12th, will be the first time behind the wheel of a stock car for Formula 1 driver, Nelson Piquet, and IndyCar Series driver, Vitor Meira. Red Horse Racing will field two Toyota Tundras (both displaying #1) for Piquet and Meira to test on the short track at Rockingham Speedway. Red Horse Drivers Timothy Peters and TJ Bell will also be on hand to help the open wheel drivers acclimate to their first stock car test. Both Piquet and Meira plan to use this test with Red Horse Racing to evaluate a future career among the NASCAR ranks. Both extremely successful in their respective series, Piquet and Meira look forward to a new challenge. Pacific Mobile will be a sponsor of the test as they are also evaluating NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Racing.(Red Horse Racing PR)(10-5-2009)
UPDATE 3: Vitor Meira wishes to make it clear that he is not contemplating a move to NASCAR now. “I plan to run in the IndyCar Series as long as it possible to do so,” said Meira. “I love racing the Indy cars and I hope to do it for as long as I am able. The opportunity to test a truck along with Nelson Piquet Jr. came up and it sounded like fun. I thought I might be able to give Nelson some pointers on running an oval because this will be his first time on an oval track. Before I agreed to do it, I asked both A.J. and Larry Foyt about it, and they gave their permission. It doesn’t mean I’m looking to go NASCAR racing now because my priority is racing with A.J.’s team in the IndyCar Series. I’ve really enjoyed working with A.J., Larry, our sponsor ABC Supply and Honda Racing this year and I want to continue to work with them as long as they want me. And we have some unfinished business at Indy.”(Victor Meira PR)(10-6-2009)
UPDATE 4: The event was rained out today with only a few laps run by before the damping short track at Rockingham sent it back to the hauler. The test has been re-scheduled to run at The Motor Mile Speedway tomorrow (Tuesday Oct, 13) and will also include diversity development drivers Laura Hayes and Natalie Sather.[Image of the #1-GoPacificMobile.com Toyota is posted on the 2009 Paint Scheme Page.](Pacific Group PR)(10-12-2009)
