Kimi Raikkonen, who makes his NASCAR debut tonight in the Camping World Truck Series, spoke to the media Friday for the first time, indicating that he would like to run in Cup later this year and also hinting that if things go well tonight, he might drive a Nationwide car next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One champion, is driving for Kyle Busch’s team tonight. Raikkonen made it through both practice sessions Friday morning without any major incidents (he did scrape the wall). He ranked 30th quickest among 36 drivers in the first practice session and was 30th among 37 drivers in the final truck practice session. Raikkonen, who is slipping his NASCAR events in between rally races he’s scheduled to do, said he wanted to come to NASCAR because “I want to try different things. I was interested to see how it is. I don’t have any plans for next year in anything I do. If I completely suck, there’s no reason to come back. Hopefully, it goes better than today.” As for his NASCAR schedule this year, Raikkonen said: “I’m looking at this weekend and hopefully next weekend I’m here. Then after that, there’s no real plans yet. Hopefully, I can get to run some Cup races that would be nice. There’s not awful lot of planning. I’ll try to do the best now and see what happens.”(Virginian Pilot)(5-20-2011)
UPDATE: The pieces to the Kimi Raikkonen Nationwide Series puzzle are coming together. FOXSports.com has learned that the car is being assembled by Kyle Busch Motorsports but the owner points will come from Joe Nemechek’s #87 entry, registered under NEMCO Motorsports, which is currently 19th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series points standings. The crew will come from NEMCO with additional support from KBM employees. NEMCO will provide transporter, equipment and back up car for the race. Raikkonen finished 15th in his NASCAR Camping World Truck debut. The 2007 Formula One champion was approved to compete in next Saturday’s Nationwide Series race prior to Friday night’s event.(FoxSports)(5-21-2011)
UPDATE 2: Kimi Raikkonen will make his Nationwide Series debut Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a car fielded by Joe Nemechek and Kyle Busch. Raikkonen’s name was on the official entry list released Monday in the #87 under the ownership of NEMCO Motorsports run by Nemechek, who formed an alliance with Busch to make the deal work. Nemechek, who also fields Toyotas, agreed to let Raikkonen drive his car that is guaranteed a spot in the field ranked 19th in owner’s points. There is also speculation Raikkonen will make his Sprint Cup debut next month at the road course [Infineon Raceway] in Sonoma, CA.(ESPN)(5-24-2011)
