F1 champ Hamilton ponders NASCAR

Three-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has short-term goals and long-term dreams. Firstly, he’s got his eye on winning a fourth F1 title. After that? The 32-year-old Mercedes driver said he’d like to “one day” enter a NASCAR race, “like the Daytona 500 maybe.”

The British driver made his comments when asked about fellow F1 driver Fernando Alonso’s decision to skip the Middle Eastern race to enter the Indianapolis 500.

“I wouldn’t miss out any of the races in Formula One [to compete elsewhere],” Hamilton said, according to Fox Sports, but he noted after his F1 career winds down, he still pictures himself racing.

This isn’t the first time Hamilton has discussed a try at NASCAR. He also said he’d be interested in entering a MotoGP race, where the world’s best motorcycle racers compete. Hamilton expressed specific interest in riding a MotoGP bike, which is capable of making turns so sharp and fast the rider’s shoulder nearly scrapes the ground.

NASCAR would likely be a safer option, although not necessarily easier.

“You think, it’s a car and you just have to drive it,” former NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya told Parade magazine in 2013. Having also raced on the F1 circuit, he’s able to compare the two.

“Each one behaves so differently from the others that to learn to drive them is a hell of a challenge,” he said. “You know, in F1, the cars were unbelievable. Nothing drives like an F1 car. But the racing was terrible, because the cars are so even, and they’re so air-dependent that it’s not easy to pass.”

If Hamilton one day enters a NASCAR race, he won’t be a total novice.

In 2011, he tried out Tony Stewart’s car at the Watkins Glen International road course in New York.

Veach’s debut

Zach Veach will make his Indy-Car debut this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

Ed Carpenter Racing announced that Veach will fill in for JR Hildebrand, who broke his left hand on the last lap April 9 at Long Beach. Hildebrand had surgery two days later.

The 22-year-old Veach was set to make his debut at the Indianapolis 500 next month with A.J. Foyt Racing.

He has six wins and six poles in three Indy Lights seasons. Veach will drive Hildebrand’s No. 21 Chevrolet in today’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

Veach says he’s grateful for the opportunity, but “this isn’t how any driver wants to get his first race.”

Bowyer’s view

Clint Bowyer is not into science, at least not the kind of science that helps collect data on drivers during a race. You won’t catch him wearing a heart monitor or biometric device anytime soon.

“Why?” he said. “The last time I checked, nobody has ever paid me to wear a heart monitor or to do anything other than finish these races up front and hopefully win them. I am sure mine is probably high and low; it just depends.

“I can tell you this: Anybody’s heart monitor in this car — if something bad happens or they get cut off or crash — that will probably be the peak moment, not driving in the corner. We have power steering.”