This weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race, the Echopark Texas Grand Prix, may seem a bit more like a Formula 1 crossover event.
Though the FIA and FOM are not involved in the weekend, you can be forgiven for not realizing that. Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button are both competing at the no-stage grand prix event at the Circuit of the Americas, with Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner even making a cameo in the FOX booth during the broadcast.
Neither has a great chance at victory (the best chance for a road-course ringer victory is probably Jordan Taylor), but the two former world champions’ presence is definitely notable.
Friday’s (March 24) 50-minute practice session didn’t seem to provide a lot of answers for the guest drivers, as they all only had lap numbers in the teens. Raikkonen is definitely on the backfoot after finishing 32nd on the board, but with both of his teammates in the top five, the No. 91 is going to have plenty of good notes to work off this weekend. Button was 28th, not far away from kind of teammate Chase Briscoe.
Button is making his first-ever start in NASCAR. The 2009 champion, to me, could very well be very competitive in the future, perhaps even in the closing stages of the race itself on Sunday.
The Brit is known for having a very smooth driving style, being very easy on the brakes and tires compared to many of his peers. This style allows him to conserve his equipment while still getting enough out of it to post competitive lap times, with mistakes such as tire lockups very rare.
This style also helps him immensely when driving in the rain. His very first F1 win, in a slow Honda back in 2006, was in the rain, and his seven wins in a race with at least a portion run in wet conditions ranks third overall since 1994.
All of these are good qualities for a NASCAR driver to have. However, one big drawback is that Button may not be very aggressive when it comes to the end of a NASCAR race, where the cars are more liable to be thrown around the racetrack.
Raikkonen, meanwhile, is making his second start for Trackhouse Racing as part of the organization’s Project 91 program. At his first at Watkins Glen International last year, Raikkonen was on track to contend for a top-10 finish before being caught up in a restart crash midway through the race.
Raikkonen is very well known for the memes surrounding him. Eating ice cream…
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