One of the most anticipated debuts in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history happens this week when 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen buckles up for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Raikkonen is just the second F1 champion to compete in the series – Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 champ, was first – and first former titleholder to race in NASCAR at the 1.5-mile speedway.
The race also marks the first time three former F1 competitors have been in a NASCAR Camping World Truck field. Raikkonen joins Nelson Piquet Jr. and Max Papis.
Piquet, a current Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, is the only one of six F1 expatriates to score a top-10 finish in his debut. Piquet finished sixth in 2010 at Daytona.
Here is how the other five have fared in their debuts:
• Narain Karthikeyan, 13thth (2010); Papis, 29th (2008); Eliseo Salazar, 17th (1997); Scott Speed, 27th (2008); Villeneuve, 21st (2007).
Speed is the only ex-F1 driver to win a series race – at Dover International Speedway in 2008.
Team owner Kyle Busch said, “We’ve sent him a few videos the past couple of years of truck racing at Charlotte. He’ll get a good view of what to expect with the in-car stuff, listening to throttle control, how much you’re on the gas and how to race people.”
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