Former Formula 1 Champion, Kimi Raikkonen debuts at CWS race - NASCAR news
The former Formula 1 champion, Kimi Raikkonen, had a decent 15th place finish in his NASCAR Campion World Truck Series on Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Previously, in the qualifying round Raikkonen scored a 31st place on the starting line. His first appearance in a stock Truck race seemed like it was a ‘NASCAR for Dummies’. Despite the fact that Kyle Busch, also the owner of his team, won the
race, it was important for Raikkonen to survive in Friday’s event.
Kimi Raikkonen said, “The racing was fun. Too many cautions. Every time I would feel like the car would start to run better, then you would have a caution, and then it would take the track a long time before the handling comes back.”
The Crew Chief for Raikkonen’s team, Rick Ren, thinks that being his first experience at a race it went well. Ren was talking about Kimi’s finish and said, “I can’t believe that he’s not pleased coming out of here 15th, because I’m pleased for
him . . . but I can’t wait to see the right side of the truck.”
Raikkonen damaged his own truck while avoiding contact with a fellow competitor. He was stuck with the right side of his truck against the boundary wall for complete lap of the speedway in the 134-laps race. The former Formula 1 champion saw three former
NASCAR champions spin-out in front of him and he radioed his crew, “There’s too many accidents.”
The truck series rookie made mistakes along with other drivers, when he over shot the entrance of the pit-lane on lap-22, meanwhile the leaders of the race made a re-entry to the track. His blunder came as a blessing in disguise when he clutched the chance
to get back into the race at sixth place after a re-start on lap-25. It was a big leap from the back of the driver’s pack.
Approaching lap 50, he was dropped back to 12th place while running on old tyres. Soon after two more laps, Raikkonen lost control of his truck on entering turn four and headed into a spin, adding one more caution to the race. Following the incident he was
able to reach a pit stop to get fuelled up and some new tyres. Kyle Busch was third before the spin and came out with no injury.
For Raikkonen it was an experience worth learning and he feels fit to participate in the next Saturday’s Nationwide Series Race.
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