Raikkonen to NASCAR

[F1Pete]

Okay, this may not be an F1 topic, but he was an F1 driver. Will this former F1 driver succeed? Montoya seems welcoming.

[Super Hans]

I'm really excited by it - I quite enjoy Nascar, and this'll give me more motivation to watch it. Whether he'll sink or swim is impossible to say - one problem is that Nascar entails a lot of promo work and meet-and-greets with fans. Not really Kimi's scene!

[Marbot]

Raikkonen to start out in trucks.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90349

When asked why he was giving up on Rallying, Kimi replied: "......"

[Down F0rce]

He isn't giving up on Rallying though, he's still doing eight more WRC events. We'll see what he does next year though...

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by Down F0rce

He isn't giving up on Rallying though, he's still doing eight more WRC events. We'll see what he does next year though...

Presumably he plans to drop rallying next year if the Nascar thing works out. I fear he may become the new JV. Winning an F1 title before becoming a nomad, trying out different series but not excelling at anything.

[fieldodreams79]

Welcome, Kimi!

Or is it Kenny?

[ECW Dan Selby]

But I think the difference is that JV was forced out and Kimi walked out.

My guess is that he's happy to try different things, dip in and out when he wants to. Afterall, the guy's surely a millionaire, asking for big fat pay cheques whomever he moves to, and he'll retire at an early age and we'll never see him again

That's my prediction!

Whereas I get the sense with JV it's very much a "give me one more shot in the big league!" attitude.

Selby

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

the guy's surely a millionaire

Of course he is - he was on a $45m retainer at Ferrari alone!

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Welcome, Kimi!

Or is it Kenny?

Kenny Rickenbacker.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

Of course he is - he was on a $45m retainer at Ferrari alone!

I think that he's still being paid not to drive in F1. Which is a shame really.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Kenny Rickenbacker.

That's good, but perhaps not "American" enough.

I was hoping for Kenny Reinhardt.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

- he was on a $45m retainer at Ferrari alone!

Originally Posted by Marbot

Kenny Rickenbacker.

Perhaps it should be Kimi Rakinitin.

im sure Kimi is being adequately renumerated in this little venture as well, and will no doubt be another case of Kimi "Rakin' it in"

Those Robertsons (his managers) seem to be a pretty formidable duo when it comes to getting a decent offer on the table for him.

Is this Gillet Foster that this project is supposedly apparently the major stakeholder / backer in the team partnership the same Foster Gillet who stitched a few people up big time in the UK and the USA in recent years? It seems that maybe NASCAR have the same people doing their due diligence checks on new team partners and backers as F1 / FIA had when we had a number of dubious characters all set to be in F1 as owners before it all fell over before it started

I cannot say I am overly enthralled by the prospect of Kimi doing NASCAR. I am a huge fan of his.... but I cannot watch the racing, not for more more than a few minutes, particularly on the ovals, without falling asleep or getting sidetracked . I would much rather see him doing the occasional LMP1 /ALMS race, especially the big one at Le Mans is something like a Peugeot.... would be great to see him and Loeb in a car with maybe even DC or similar at the Le Mans 24 hour.

I would /will follow Kimi's progress in NASCAR, but it will only be in the print media / online, and most certainly will not go as far as to actually watching it on TV..

[ECW Dan Selby]

Originally Posted by E.B

I cannot say I am overly enthralled by the prospect of him doing NASCAR. I am a huge fan of Kimi.... but I cannot watch the racing, particularly the ovals without falling asleep. I would much rather see him doing the occasional LMP1 /ALMS race, especially the big one at Le Mans is something like a Peugeot.... would be great to see him and Loeb in a car with maybe even DC or similar at the Le Mans 24 hour.

NOW you're talking!

Selby

[stripedcat]

Welcome Kimi to NASCAR. I hope he has a few battles with Montoya on the ovals. I hope he is more successful at NASCAR than he was at rallying.

[Quartermiler]

Be interesting to see if Kimi can handle NASCAR, where other European ex-single seater drivers have struggled.

I'm a Montoya fan, but despite his speed, success has so far eluded him in terms of wins on short tracks or super-speedways.

I'm a NASCAR fan too, as well as being big into F1 & WRC and I always find it amusing that many petrol-heads in Europe find NASCAR boring !

43 cars piling into bends in a pack at 205mph+ is not boring in my book. It's some of the most exciting racing anywhere in the world and the "good ole boys" are funny as hell, unlike the F1 robots.

Not that this is an F1 bashing excerise, but just as with F1, unless you get into the minutiae of NASCAR, you may miss what's so damn fine about it.

[Wims]

I'm not a huge fan of NASCAR even tho I've watched 100s of races. Probably less than 200 tho. But I do know that I'll be watching a few more in the future just because of Raikkonen

[bludd billz]

Originally Posted by Quartermiler

Be interesting to see if Kimi can handle NASCAR, where other European ex-single seater drivers have struggled.

I'm a Montoya fan, but despite his speed, success has so far eluded him in terms of wins on short tracks or super-speedways.

I'm a NASCAR fan too, as well as being big into F1 & WRC and I always find it amusing that many petrol-heads in Europe find NASCAR boring !

43 cars piling into bends in a pack at 205mph+ is not boring in my book. It's some of the most exciting racing anywhere in the world and the "good ole boys" are funny as hell, unlike the F1 robots.

Not that this is an F1 bashing excerise, but just as with F1, unless you get into the minutiae of NASCAR, you may miss what's so damn fine about it.

Stock car oval racing can be great fun to watch, the problem is NASCAR doesn't let races happen. They run a 500 mile race and look for any excuse to throw the full course yellow.

A car spins out, hits nothing, and gets going again = yellow. Debris on the track the TV cameras never show = yellow. Everyone needs to pit, let's throw a yellow so they can all pit together and not confuse the fans.

There is no point to running such long races if they're not allowed to play out. People can complain about F1 being boring, but at least F1 lets races happen, for the most part.

Also, one can argue for the drivers being robots as well. Yes, they talk trash about each other, but one word about the race procedures or the organization, and it's to "the trailer" you go for a spanking...

[Adam43]

I too get annoyed about the number of yellows, but I think you have overplayed the situation here:

Originally Posted by bludd billz

A car spins out, hits nothing, and gets going again = yellow. Debris on the track the TV cameras never show = yellow. Everyone needs to pit, let's throw a yellow so they can all pit together and not confuse the fans.

This year alone I remember at least one example of a car spinning and carrying on that didn't cause a yellow. I also remember stops under green - at Bristol where it is most confusing.
I just think they are over-cautious and it has a side-effect they don't mind.

[Quartermiler]

Yep..I agree in part with that, but NASCAR drivers do blast the organisation and all sports protect their image.

The drivers are far more expressive with interviews and in-car radio chat.

I've seen plenty of cautions called when it appeared the racing could of gone ahead without too much difficulty, but I'm not driving over it at 200mph, so it may appear more contrived on occasion than it actually is.

I'm not defending NASCAR on this point as such, but I reserve judgement.

[Wims]

It seems like they have a lot of fake debris full course yellow just so they can squeeze in a commercial break.

[Quartermiler]

I was chewing on some of that fake debris a few years back when Ryan Newman flipped his car at Daytona, bits of it showered through the fencing and I among others, got a gob full of it.

There has of course been cases in the past when a driver has chucked a lump of brake assembly or such out of the side window on to the track, to bring out a yellow, but with modern technology, I doubt you could get away with it now.

[fieldodreams79]

Speedway cautions/safety cars are dealt with entirely differently than road courses, even though NASCAR has not figured that one out yet. It is not safe to remove anything from a speedway without bringing the race to yellow.

That said, the phantom debris cautions, debris WELL off the racing line cautions and the spin-don't hit anything-keep going cautions have gotten completely out of hand just in the last 5 years or so.

From open wheels to Rallying to stockcars; not too many drivers can claim that these days.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

Presumably he plans to drop rallying next year if the Nascar thing works out. I fear he may become the new JV. Winning an F1 title before becoming a nomad, trying out different series but not excelling at anything.

I'm not entirely comfortable with the decision either. I think Kimi will enjoy the atmosphere, but he's still a racer at heart and won't enjoy not winning. I'd almost rather he'd gone to the IRL.

It's also a shame because there are signs that he's getting to grips with rallying. He was 7th last time out in Portugal.

[MrTTraces]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I also remember stops under green - at Bristol where it is most confusing.

They manage to have Green laps at Bristol, wonders never cease


Not sure what to make of this, he's not racing where the money is to put food on the table cos he's a multi millionaire.

He gets easily bored I guess and loses interest in things. How long will he stay interested in NASCAR before he decides to wonder off and do something else?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by E.B

I would much rather see him doing the occasional LMP1 /ALMS race, especially the big one at Le Mans is something like a Peugeot.... would be great to see him and Loeb in a car with maybe even DC or similar at the Le Mans 24 hour....

Now there's a thought, get Kimi and JPM to hook up with Loeb or even just another NASCAR guy and have a go at Le Mans.....