Raikkonen will make his first appearance in a motorsport event since ending his 20-year Formula One career.
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Kimi Raikkonen will join Trackhouse Racing for the road course event at Watkins Glen on August 21, driving with teammates Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain in a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Raikkonen will make his first appearance in a motorsport event since ending his 20-year Formula One career with his final performance for Alfa Romeo at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last December. During his hiatus from Formula One in 2011, the 2007 world champion competed in one Nationwide Series (now known as Xfinity Series) event and one Truck Series race with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
“We had more talks about it, how would it work, where the race would be, and all sorts of other things,” the Finn said. “There’s a lot of things involved, and it all made sense for me. It’s one race, so it made sense for all of us as a family. I always enjoyed it when I had my few races (in the United States). Hopefully we have a good race and good fun. Obviously it’s a new car and I’ve never been at the track. But I’m sure we can figure it out.”
Raikkonen’s participation is part of Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 project, which aims to broaden NASCAR’s appeal by dedicating its #91 car to international racing drivers. Trackhouse will have three drivers from three different countries for the race at Watkins Glen, in addition to Chastain and Suarez. “I’ve been a big fan of Kimi’s for a long time, I’ve followed his career since he started in Formula 1 with Sauber,” said Trackhouse owner Justin Marks.
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“One of the cool moments of my career being a Formula 1 fan was being able to race against Kimi in a Cup series race in Charlotte in 2011. I knew he had an interest in NASCAR, and that he’d done it before, and thought that if I explained to him what this project was all about, he’d be interested in being a part of it,” he added.
Raikkonen’s goal is to travel to the United States with enough time before the race to perform a test in the Chevrolet car as well as a simulator drive with the team. Marks paid Raikkonen a visit at his house in Switzerland to discuss the sale and, according to the Finn, sold the whole thing nicely. Although there were options to return to racing earlier this year, Raikkonen stated he wanted to allow himself enough time to prepare for the Watkins Glen Cup race.
“There were obviously options to do more this year, but I think it all came a bit too quickly, to try to do it as well as we can on all the sides,” Raikkonen said. “I think it was better to wait until this race, so we can prepare for everything and at least have done the work 100% right and what the outcome is, nobody knows. We’ll at least give ourselves the best chance that we can. What comes after that? I don’t know, nobody knows. We’ll try to do a good race there and enjoy it, and see what the future brings. I have no other plans. That’s what I have right now, and we’ll go from there,” he concluded.
