Former F1 champs race at COTA
AUSTIN, Texas — Kimi Raikkonen has already sprayed champagne from the winner’s podium at the Circuit of Americas.
That was in 2018, when he wore Ferrari red and scored the final victory of his long Formula One career at the United States Grand Prix.
The Finn is back in Texas, but in a much different car in a much different series with very different racing styles.
Raikkonen and fellow former F1 champion Jenson Button will drive Sunday in NASCAR’s first road course race of 2023. Raikkonen won the F1 championship in 2007. England’s Button won it two years later. They have 36 career F1 victories between them.
“It’s nice to be back,” Raikkonen said Saturday. “It’s a lovely place here in Texas.”
Raikkonen will be driving Trackhouse Racing ’s Project91 entry that is designed to give a seat in NASCAR to drivers from others disciplines. Button will drive the No. 15 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing.
Many of the regular NASCAR drivers welcome the Europeans.
Ryan Blaney said he wants to meet Button because he was a huge fan as a kid. Cup series leader Joey Logano is impressed they are climbing into cars that must feel unusual.
“We don’t ever get the opportunity to stack up against those guys. They grow up racing completely different cars in different countries,” Logano said. “Put me in an F1 car and I’m going to be lost. It’s great for our sport.”
And there’s another “road course ringer” in the field: Sports car driver Jordan Taylor makes his NASCAR debut with Hendrick Motorsports. He qualified fourth driving
for injured Chase Elliott, who is still recovering from fractured tibia in a snowboarding accident.
“Jordan is really strong,” said William Byron, a twotime winner this season who qualified in pole position for Sunday. “It’s impressive. The other guys too.”
Some drivers have questioned whether Taylor and the F1 guys really know what they are in for in the roughand-tumble racing in the Cup series.
Raikkonen has some experience with that. He made his Cup series debut last season at Watkins Glen, and was competitive until getting run off course on a restart. His race ended with a crash into a tire barrier.
“In F1, open wheels if you touch somebody you usually lose a part or lose a wheel, you can’t really take that risk ... In NASCAR, you can have a bit more closer racing,” Raikkonen
said. “It makes it exciting I guess at the end of the races when people can be quite aggressive.”
Button said he’s ready for it: “I get to race against 30 other crazy guys out there. I’ll roll with the punches.”
Button noticed some big differences right away in Friday’s practice. First, he forgot how to start the car.
“There were a few other switches I had to put up,” Button said, laughing at himself.
Then he had to avoid some heavy traffic.
“People don’t move out of the way when they’re on a slow lap, and you’re on a quick lap,” he said.
Button’s NASCAR debut is part of a three-race deal to drive road courses this season. And he’s not done switching things up. He’s already been named one of three drivers for NASCAR’s entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Taylor will be the backup driver and driver coach for Le Mans.
Button still spends part of the year following F1 as part of Sky Sports broadcast race coverage.
He said it was his wife, Brittny Ward, who nudged him into trying to find an entry into NASCAR. She’s an
American and knew more about NASCAR than F1 when they first met over dinner in Los Angeles years ago.
When Button told her he was an F1 driver, Button said she asked, “Is that like NASCAR?’ ”
“I’m like, ‘It’s just like NASCAR. It’s so similar, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart,’ ” Button said.
Penalty appeal
NASCAR announced that April 5 will be the day Hendrick Motorsports can appeal the largest combined fine on one team in series history. The team was hammered with a total of $400,000 in fines, suspension for four crew chiefs, and loss of 100 regular-season points and 10 playoffs points for modifying air-deflecting pieces at Phoenix Raceway. HMS driver Alex Bowman was the Cup Series points leader prior to his 100-point deduction. He’s now 20th.
Xfinity: A.J. Allmendinger dominated early, then had to fight to retake the lead at the start of the final stage to earn his 11th career NASCAR Xfinity series road course victory Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas. Allmendinger bumped Sheldon Creed out of the lead with 14 laps to go, then held off William Byron over the next couple of laps before pulling away for the victory, his second in a row at the Texas track.
Trucks: Zane Smith became the first repeat NASCAR winner at the famed Circuit of the Americas road course, the reigning series champion holding off veteran Kyle Busch to claim his second straight victory in Saturday’s XPEL 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. Formula One: Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay $950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton. The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term which means “little Black guy,” in 2021.