Kimi Raikkonen Racing in Nascar, WTF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich S
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Rossticles
This reads like a bad and early April Fools' joke. He's too good of a racer for NASCAR. It's not that NASCAR is easy, but Kimi is extremely talented.
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Could have swore I heard the same thing said about JPM.

He should know better than to race for Gillett as well.
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This is the part that really worries me.
 
Montoya had circle track experience and had an Indy 500 win and a CART championship under his belt before he went to NASCAR. Him going there didn't bother me as much.
 
With such a young team, getting a former F1 driver this soon is hard to believe and its even harder to believe of all team owners, its Kyle Busch.

I curious to know who approached who on this deal. Either answer would be an interesting.
 
RACECAR
With such a young team, getting a former F1 driver this soon is hard to believe and its even harder to believe of all team owners, its Kyle Busch.

I curious to know who approached who on this deal. Either answer would be an interesting.
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I'm willing to bet Kyle Busch wanted to approach him since he has to look for drivers every time he doesn't race the truck. If Kimi works out it'll be less stressful and will be beneficial to his truck team.
 
Cale
I'm willing to bet Kyle Busch wanted to approach him since he has to look for drivers every time he doesn't race the truck. If Kimi works out it'll be less stressful and will be beneficial to his truck team.
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Hmmm, good point. I was gonna say "isn't Kasey Kahne sort of his unofficial driver in reserve?" but I forget Kasey hasn't signed on for more races quite yet. This does kinda benefit both parties at present, Kimi has a team to start with and Kyle now has a driver (other then Kasey whenever he decides to drive again) to drive the Truck.
 
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ROAD_DOGG33J
I was wondering what Kimi was growing his hair out for.
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You just made my day.
That was the single most funny thing I have read in a LONG time. :)
I'm still laughing!
 
He reportedly had his first test session today at Gresham Motorsports Park.
Jayski.com
Kimi Raikkonen, Left Turns Equal Right Move At GMP: Reporters and photographers were the first to open the gates at Gresham Motorsports Park this morning as they awaited the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen, former F1 Champion. Raikkonen arrived in America this past weekend to make his first test run at GMP today. He has signed with Kyle Busch Motorsports to run a limited schedule in the NASCAR Camping World Truck series and will make his NCWTS debut at Charlotte on May 20, 2011.
The 2007 Formula One Champion is a native of Finland and currently drives in the World Rally Car Series since leaving Formula One in 2009. Raikkonen will be a familiar face to some of the NASCAR drivers including Juan Pablo Montoya and Nelson Piquet Jr., who were both former F1 drivers. "Gresham Motorsports Park is proud to have Raikkonen choose this track for his first-ever NASCAR test," said Gresham Motorsports Park's General Manager, Dan Elliott. "We know that Kimi will be successful no matter where he competes." Raikkonen plans to run a two-day closed test at GMP in preparation for his NCWTS debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway's Education Lottery 200 on May 20, 2011.(Gresham Motorsports Park)(4-4-2011)
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Let's see if he can beat the lap record at Taladega while reading a book and drinking a cup of tea. :)
(Taladega Nights reference)
 
Raikkonen interested in running Cup races: 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)
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Kimi is paying 100k per truck race to drive for KBM, is the article saying KBM would field a car for him in Nationwide or CUP? Anyhow, awesome stuff, we need an anti-Johnson. I'd say Kyle would be good to be involved with, at the least, and this is wholly pulled out of no where, Kyle could do a Gordon like half ownership deal with Gibbs for either a Nationwide or Cup ride, provided things work out. Gibbs even has room for a fourth car if things worked out like that. Lots of money, just speculating. Way to early to say, I'll just wait for the All-Star weekened, but early reports do sound good. I'd like to see this work out for him, I'll buy a Perky Jerkey diecast lol. Being involved with a powerhouse team from the start has got to be awesome.
 
gogatrs
Damn! Not another Juan Pablo Montoya!

He should at least go to Indy Cars and/or Sports Cars so he could go for the triple crown (Triple Crown= Monaco GP, Le Mans, Indy 500)
I believe he has Monaco under his belt.
Then again, not that I would do NASCAR, but if I could, I would try to experience all the different Motorsports. (I don't classify NASCAR as a sport)
In case you haven't noticed yet, I don't like NASCAR. :)
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Something Jacques Villeneuve has done; not sure if Jacques has competed in World Rally Car?

Go for it Kimi 👍
 
LSX
Kimi is paying 100k per truck race to drive for KBM, is the article saying KBM would field a car for him in Nationwide or CUP? Anyhow, awesome stuff, we need an anti-Johnson. I'd say Kyle would be good to be involved with, at the least, and this is wholly pulled out of no where, Kyle could do a Gordon like half ownership deal with Gibbs for either a Nationwide or Cup ride, provided things work out. Gibbs even has room for a fourth car if things worked out like that. Lots of money, just speculating. Way to early to say, I'll just wait for the All-Star weekened, but early reports do sound good. I'd like to see this work out for him, I'll buy a Perky Jerkey diecast lol. Being involved with a powerhouse team from the start has got to be awesome.
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There is also speculations that CArl will be in a 4th Gibbs car next season though too.
 
Cale
There is also speculations that CArl will be in a 4th Gibbs car next season though too.
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Whoa, hold up...Carl, as in, Backflippin Carl? "Almost Killed Keseloski a few times" Carl?
 
Yes talks are that he'll be going to Gibbs next year, but the ways he's running right now...
 
He is my fav race driver. He has so much talent but he is wasting it :( I would like to see him in F1, join Mercedes when Schumi leaves. DTM or other motorsport series can also be good for him. Nascar can be fun like rally I guess but at least here he won't have to listen to co-driver for pace notes like rallying and the surface like snow, gravel are more difficult for GP race driver.
 
I don't understand that. If he's your favorite driver why wouldn't you support his decision to try something new? Wouldn't it be cool to say your favorite driver was successful in many forms of racing?
 
kimi123
He is my fav race driver. He has so much talent but he is wasting it :( I would like to see him in F1, join Mercedes when Schumi leaves. DTM or other motorsport series can also be good for him. Nascar can be fun like rally I guess but at least here he won't have to listen to co-driver for pace notes like rallying and the surface like snow, gravel are more difficult for GP race driver.
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Eh, Kimi wasn't the same at Ferrari, I would love to see him finding that magic from his McLaren days again but I think he is better off doing his own thing. He was quite respectable in WRC, clearly not that difficult for him to cope with the different terrain.
Going to NASCAR can only be a good thing for F1, especially if he does well like Montoya has. The more ties with NASCAR there is, the more interest grows between the sports and the chances that F1 can finally break into the US on a bigger scale increase in my opinion.
 
Cale
I don't understand that. If he's your favorite driver why wouldn't you support his decision to try something new? Wouldn't it be cool to say your favorite driver was successful in many forms of racing?
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+1

Ardius
Eh, Kimi wasn't the same at Ferrari, I would love to see him finding that magic from his McLaren days again but I think he is better off doing his own thing.
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I noticed that he just didn't have the fire like he did at Mclaren. Did he lose motivation? Was he bored? That still leaves me stumped as to what happened.
 
RACECAR
I noticed that he just didn't have the fire like he did at Mclaren. Did he lose motivation? Was he bored? That still leaves me stumped as to what happened.
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Rumors are always rumors, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've often heard that the car was better suited for Massa. Also that Kimi was Todt's pick, not Domenicali's, so after JT left, they started to favor Massa even more in the development and I believe they were in talks with Alonso already then. So it would been more justified to make room for Alonso in Kimi's expence if Kimi was slower than Felipe.

But as I said, these are only rumors, no facts so take them as they are. Believe it or not.
 
NISM0_SKYLINE
I think it's cool myself. If I had millions of dollars and a good driver, why not jump from series to series. Yea, he could of stayed in F1 and raked in the money, but he decided to do rally and did, ok. Since he tried the World's biggest motorsports, why not give try out the American way of racing.
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I love games like Forza and GT because you can race all kinds of cars in any number of series all over the world.

If only there was a way you could do that in real life from a solid financial basis!

Oh, wait, Kimi can :D

The supermodel wife is just a bonus I guess...
 
vompatti
Rumors are always rumors, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've often heard that the car was better suited for Massa. Also that Kimi was Todt's pick, not Domenicali's, so after JT left, they started to favor Massa even more in the development and I believe they were in talks with Alonso already then. So it would been more justified to make room for Alonso in Kimi's expence if Kimi was slower than Felipe.

But as I said, these are only rumors, no facts so take them as they are. Believe it or not.
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The only Ferrari person who seems happy in his work is Alonso. The rest of them come off like they're on edge, not in a good way. Could it have been like that back in 2008 and 2009?
 
Well at least he'll get the fastest lap. He always got the fastest lap in every GP he was in :lol:
 

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