Narain Karthikeyan wants to compete in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. Along the way, he wants to co-opt 1.2 billion of his countrymen into following stock-car racing. Karthikeyan became the first India native to break onto the NASCAR circuit in March when he finished 13th in a Camping World Truck Series event. He’ll race again on Sept. 25 in the Smith’s Food & Drug Stores 350 in Las Vegas. “I think that NASCAR has a huge potential market in India, and I feel that I have a great opportunity to introduce India to NASCAR,” Karthikeyan said. “I’m pretty confident that the Indian will thoroughly enjoy the excitement, adrenalin-charged atmosphere and sheer bumper-to-bumper racing that is NASCAR.” Karthikeyan shares this vision with the man who offered him the chance to drive stock cars — rookie owner Miguel Abaroa of Starbeast Motorsports. Abaroa plucked Karthikeyan from the Formula 1 circuit with the ambitious goal of tapping into India’s sports culture and going global. “Not only do we want to build a championship-caliber NASCAR team, but we also want to create a bridge between these two countries,” Abaroa said. “We want to bring a new option to people [in India] who follow sports.” The Starbeast team isn’t the only entity that sees the financial potential and cultural promise of the venture. NEO Sports, an Indian sports channel similar to ESPN, is broadcasting all of Karthikeyan’s truck races this year, as well as all the Sprint Cup events.(ESPN.com)(9-18-2010)
