In his debut he would finish 15th, up sixteen spots from his 31st position qualifying spot. That's probably more cars than Raikkonen ever passed in a single Formula 1 race. He had a good truck, but struggled with finding track position. Ultimately, it wasn't too shabby for a stock car racing debut.
Today it was confirmed that he would be driving the #87 Perky Jerky Toyota Camry for NEMCO Motorsports in Saturday night's Nationwide Series race at Charlotte. The car will be prepared by Kyle Busch Motorsports. The Nationwide car won't be as good in comparison to the competition as the Truck was, but it should provide Raikkonen another look into whether he wants to pursue a long-term commitment to NASCAR.
Open wheel racing has increasingly provided a surprising feeder series for stock car racing. It started years ago with Tony Stewart jumping from the Indy Racing League to Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR. For years before that, NASCAR had been pulling drivers from traditionally open wheel feeder series' like USAC. It went silent for a few years before Juan Pablo Montoya came from Formula 1 to try his hand at NASCAR for his former IRL owner Chip Ganassi.
That led to a couple other drivers trying the same thing. Dario Franchitti had some glimpses of what he could accomplish in NASCAR, but ultimately the lack of sponsorship forced him back to IndyCar for Ganassi where he picked up where he left off, winning the last two championships to give him a personal three straight. Sam Hornish had sponsorship and the commitment from his owner, but ultimately sank after Penske Racing signed another sponsorship agreement forced him out of his ride when the sponsors conflicted.
In comparison, Montoya has had the most success of the recent open wheel defectors. With his pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup victories (2007 at Infineon, 2010 at Watkins Glen) and a Chase appearance in 2009, he has secured that role in a virtually no competition victory.
Danica Patrick raised some eyebrows with her move to NASCAR, but unlike Montoya, Franchitti, and Hornish she has taken the time to run in the Nationwide Series. While largely viewed by fans as a development series, the Nationwide Series allows you to compete at the same tracks with most of the same drivers and with a very similar car as the Sprint Cup Series, but for a fraction of the cost. This allows her to be placed in competitive equipment to get a real feel for her abilities behind the wheel.
She had a slow start last year, but showed some definite improvement through the first part of this season as she's begun showing that she has the ability to contend for top-10 finishes. For me, this shows that she made the right decision of testing the waters.
This seems to be what Kimi Raikkonen is doing.
The Finnish driver lives in Europe and commutes to the United States. He is 31 years old and likely has a very comfortable lifestyle in Europe. Do you completely uproot yourself to test your feet in NASCAR when you aren't sure if you want to commit? I see Kimi running several races over this season as he tries to determine whether he wants to give this a chance. When that decision is made, I think you will see him commit. Moving to the United States, getting as much seat time as possible as he attempts to become a competitive Sprint Cup driver.
And the move further illustrates just where NASCAR stands on the world wide stage. That international stars like Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen would even consider NASCAR is a huge change from just a decade ago.
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