Kimi Raikkonen is testing well in NASCAR. So good, in fact, that he is already matching lap times with Kyle Busch, the owner of the truck the Formula One world champion will race. Raikkonen did more testing Thursday in Rockingham, N.C., after two days earlier this week at Gresham Motorsports Park in Georgia attended by Busch. All this comes less than a week after Raikkonen signed with Kyle Busch Motorsports to make his NASCAR debut next month in a Trucks Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “The test went really well at Gresham. Kimi is a race car driver, so he does know how to drive race cars and drive them well,” Busch said Thursday. “I got to see it firsthand, and then got to get in the truck myself and run some laps just to kind of see where I compared to where he was at on tires and stuff, and we ran identical lap times. So he’s right there, he knows what he’s doing.” Busch said Raikkonen has also expressed interest in running Sprint Cup and Nationwide races, but Busch said will be re-evaluated after the first race in the truck. “As far as the Nationwide and Cup stuff goes, we haven’t had any discussions on that,” Busch said. “He has asked after the truck debut in Charlotte, which is what our first focus is, kind of evaluating and seeing where he’s at and how he feels and what he wants to do.”(Associated Press/ESPN.com)(4-8-2011)
UPDATE: With former Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen preparing for his Camping World Truck Series debut with Kyle Busch Motorsports, it would seem the natural progression to Nationwide and Sprint Cup would be with Joe Gibbs Racing, the team that fields cars for Busch in those series. But JGR President J.D. Gibbs said it would be hard for his organization to run a fourth car in either series and it would be more likely that JGR could provide equipment for Busch, and allow him to field the team himself through his KBM effort.(Scene Daily)(4-9-2011)
