Can F1/WRC-rally driver do well in nascar?

[SuperB70]

Well, they have let the cat out of the bag:

Räikkönen drives in KB team in truck series...

More in Nascar.com
(http://community.nascar.com/2011jeep/blog/2010/08/26/official:_kimi_raikkonen_signs_with_red_bull_racin g_for_2012)
What do you think, can he be succeed in there?

[CFster]

Stock cars rely more on mechanical grip than aero grip, which along with being heavier and having relatively skinny tires makes them more of a handful to drive. Some guys who have come over from Indy or even F1 have failed for this reason. Heck even F1 champion Nigel Mansell said the same thing after he transferred from Williams F1 to Newmann Haas Indycar back in '93. And he said that about an indycar, which weighed 400lbs more than an F1 car at the time. He said an F1 car is so nimble if he screwed up a corner entry he could correct several times before the apex - an indycar was more sluggish and heavy, so you were pretty much committed when you turned the wheel. One can only imagine what a stock car would have felt like to him.

However, in Kimi's case I think he has an advantage for several reasons. He grew up on the ice, and has been racing Rally cars for the last few years. That's all about mechanical grip. Also, he hasn't been racing long enough in any particular series - so he's been able to adapt to new formulas. And bear in mind he only had about a dozen and a half races under his belt (in anything) before entering F1. When his heart was in it he was unmatched on track. Tons of natural talent.

Now for the bad. One reason Kimi left F1 was because he didn't like the media attention. He didn't like giving interviews period. Not a very outgoing guy. I don't imagine that will fly well with the NASCAR crowd, and may ultimately be his downfall. He's got more money than god, so I think if his team owner pulls him aside and tells him he has to do silly commercials or appear on any one what seems like a dozen NASCAR theme shows on a given weekend he'll just tell him to go screw and leave. Hell, he already walked away from F1.

[rogue]

nascar - wrestlin's form of racing

[Rybar]

Pretty sure Ferrari paid him out as he was still under contract for 2010. This to bring in Alonso. I think he was making around $40 million/year

Not sure why in the heck he would want to try Nascar Trucks, but the guy is still quite young to retire. maybe he saw what happened to Robert Kubica and decided he wanted out of Rally racing??

I don't follow Nascar, but how has crybaby Montoya done since he arrived?

[onevoice]

Montoya has done ok, he's won on a road course. The bottom line is that a good driver will be able to adapt. It will take a couple of years, and a good team, but the cream always rises to the top. The open wheel drivers that haven't made it in nascar haven't given it enough time. It is popular in some circles to trash talk nascar and it's drivers, but it takes a lot of skill and car development to rise to the top.

Not only have drivers cross pollinated the two series, designers have made the move also.

Briton Mike Coughlan, the former McLaren Formula 1 Design Director, is now working in NASCAR as the director of vehicle design for Michael Waltrip Racing
“NASCAR - for good or for bad - is becoming a more engineering-led sport. As an engineer you believe it’s the right choice.”

As a design engineer, he doesn’t have to attend races, but, has been to a few already. “I’ve been to Bristol; every motor racing fan should to go Bristol.” He also attended the night race in Charlotte.

Even though the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars are very, very, similar one to the other, Coughlan says that finding speed in NASCAR takes “twice” as many steps as in Formula 1 due to their design.

Nascar is old tech, but it sure as hell isn't low tech.

[SuperB70]

Actually Kimi has been driven on tarmac almost all his life, started racing with go-carts in age of 5 or 6.

He was bought out from Ferrari. I guess he lost his drive in F1 after the victory.

And he is not a quiet guy when his "off" work. He has done those ridiculous commercials too. And in many tabloids has told about hes partys and other advendures, like any other star.

You have to understand that we are Finns, like my friend always says: -"We are from Finland, we are not retarded but we do abuse english":lol:
We are quiet and shy. But give us something stronger than water,and we talk all night long. Have to give us more to get us to shot up.:willy:

In here we all learn how to drive fast on snow and ice, because the long winter and we all learn our way around mechanical instruments, such as cars, tractors, trucks and motorcycles. Maeby thats why we are so good in motorsports. Think, there is only around 5 million of us Finns.

If you compare WRC-success between Mr.Block and Mr.Räikkönen, it is peculiar situation, if one had to guess, easily expect it to be other way around.

Like the Ford WRC-team leader M.Wilson say'd couple years ago: -" If you wanna win, hire a Fin." He did hire two.

,Juhani

[CFster]

now try going from nascar to f1...not gonna happen....lol micheal andretti went from cart to f1 and never scored a point, had his azz bounced off the starting grid the first couple of races...the lateral g's are more than most people can handle:hail:

Andretti scored points in three races for a total of 7 in his only season in F1, and finished 3rd at his last GP in Italy. He had seven retirements that season, and his teammate, a fellow by the name of Ayrton Senna had four.

The reason Andretti sucked was because he was thrown into the car with absolutely no testing. He also chose to "commute" back and forth to Europe for the race weekends - a definite mistake on his part. He really needed to immerse himself in the team more.

[onevoice]

now try going from nascar to f1...not gonna happen....lol micheal andretti went from cart to f1 and never scored a point, had his azz bounced off the starting grid the first couple of races...the lateral g's are more than most people can handle:hail:

There were a lot of reason Michael Andretti wasn't successful at F1, but none of them was because:
the lateral g's are more than most people can handle:hail:
That is just ignorant. F1 isn't the be all end all of drivers or knowledge. If you want to know the real reasons, see this

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/andretti/index.html

[XcYZ]

Räikkönen is paying Kyle Busch Motorsports $100,000 per race to 'rent' his ride. That's going to add up fast.

Raikkonen's plan is to "pay for some truck races to raise interest and get a sponsorship budget for Nationwide and possibly the (premier) Sprint Cup". His contract with Busch is reportedly for three to five races.

[Jr]

Räikkönen is paying Kyle Busch Motorsports $100,000 per race to 'rent' his ride. That's going to add up fast.

Last year Ferrari paid him 13.1 million pounds to not race. He should be able to float that $100K bill for awhile.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20082010/58/absent-raikkonen-third-f1-salary-list.html

[SuperB70]

Originally Posted by XcYZ
Räikkönen is paying Kyle Busch Motorsports $100,000 per race to 'rent' his ride. That's going to add up fast.

Last year Ferrari paid him 13.1 million pounds to not race. He should be able to float that $100K bill for awhile.


What I have been reading, Kimi is NOT putting down 1 cent of his own money for this project. He has 3 some major scale sponsors.

Same thing with his deal with Citroen and WRC. He had "wings".

[Mikael A]

You have to understand that we are Finns, like my friend always says: -"We are from Finland, we are not retarded but we do abuse english":lol:
We are quiet and shy. But give us something stronger than water,and we talk all night long. Have to give us more to get us to shot up.:willy:

I am a half finn and thats so true and funny.

[XcYZ]

What I have been reading, Kimi is NOT putting down 1 cent of his own money for this project. He has 3 some major scale sponsors.

Same thing with his deal with Citroen and WRC. He had "wings".

That would certainly make it less worriesome when wadding up a race car. :D

I'm really surprised that he's going to debut at Charlotte.

[Jr]

That would certainly make it less worriesome when wadding up a race car. :D

I'm really surprised that he's going to debut at Charlotte.

If he really wants to make a splash in Nascar, why not to it in their home town.

I may watch the truck race just to see how he does.

[onevoice]

Räikkönen is paying Kyle Busch Motorsports $100,000 per race to 'rent' his ride. That's going to add up fast.

That is just a window into the costs of professional motorsports. A mid to backmarker team like Key Motorsports has per race packages starting at $50,000 per race. They finished 22nd in owner points last year

http://www.keymotorsports.us/show_truck.html

Another interesting cost: $20500 for a day of short track testing. Crash damage extra.

A team capable of winning is naturally a lot more.

[groovyjay]

Kimi is super quick no matter what he's driving. I remember a long time ago, we were having a night out and Kimi had just closed a deal with Sauber F1 team. We were in a night club ready to go and Kimi was in the mood for a little race against a guy who at the time was all over the news with his big time IT success and his new Lambo Diablo. This IT guy had also taken part in some small time racing and obviously wanted to test his skills against Kimi.

Kimi was driving his beat up Audi A3 1.8T with one off those tiny spare wheels due to and accident earlier that week. And off they went at 4AM Kimi in the audi and the IT guy in his brand new Lambo. We just stood there in the parking lot and listened to the sound of the Diablo somewhere in the distance. About 10 minutes later Kimi showed up and the guy in the Lamborghini followed him after another minute or so. Kimi was just laughing and having fun like he always is. Really nice guy and he also has a nice collection of cars and bikes.

And NasCar is just another way to have some fun. He once said that he'd like to do the LeMans 24h race and try rally and NasCar before he retires from racing.

And he seems to be doing pretty good with the lap times in the testing...

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2011-04-07/kimi-raikkonen-quickly-up-to-speed-in-first-nascar-truck-test

Racing those trucks will be a whole different story, but it'll be interesting to see how he'll do.

[protour73]

What I have been reading, Kimi is NOT putting down 1 cent of his own money for this project. He has 3 some major scale sponsors.

Same thing with his deal with Citroen and WRC. He had "wings".

As my good friend Juhani has mentioned, Kimi already has some major, unnamed sponsors in the wings. The money that Kimi has banked over 9 years in Formula 1 (2009 - 2nd highest paid athlete in the WORLD), would bury what Kyle Busch has in his piggy bank. Kimi is not worried about cash.

Montoya has mentioned that he thought it quite odd that Raikkonen would choose Charlotte for his debut. Kimi will drive the guts out of those trucks, I've seen him purposely grenade an F1 car that was about to blow......a 9000 rpm engine with a mechanical valvetrain won't stand a chance!!

What worries me and others that have followed Kimi, are his mono-syllabic, one word, monotoned answers in a pre or postrace press conference. The American press, and NASCAR fans will eat him alive. Unless there is a side of him that has been squelched in the F1 and WRC world that we don't know about. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see Kimi come to the U.S. and be successful (YES, I'm an American Finn, AND a longtime Raikkonen fan). The Camping World truck series is only a stepping stone, as he will leapfrog to the Nationwide series, and then on to the Cup cars.

This will be fun to watch in my opinion. :unibrow:

[SuperB70]

Hi my man Scott!

I was waiting when will you join in conversation.

I think he will do alright if just people let him do it hes way and on his time.

Here are couple Kimi commercial, he was an Finnish phone operator DNA is one of his sponsors and naturally he has made many adds for them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jxIrfxTv28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9wVtJWf6zc

Vaihtamalla paranee = Gets better when you chance

-"Ei ne suuret tulo vaan ne pienet menot!" means

-"it's not the big income, its the small expenses"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbI93pXXGvk&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUO99VRrFU&feature=related

http://www.iltalehti.fi/viihde/200707296407828_vi.shtml

He was in speed boat poker run but couldnt let be seen having "fun"(drinking in public) so little disguise was needet.

Sorry, that most of then are in native language.

,Juhani

[Scott Hightower]

With his "Slipping and Sliding" experience he should do OK.

It will still take some time though to catch up. Remember, his competition is the best of the best.

Scott
welders360 (http://www.welders360.com/)

[XcYZ]

Truck racing has high attrition, even more so at Charlotte. I'll definitely be watching. :cheers: