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Me and the Kimster! woohoo! Spent about half an hour with him, the owner/president of Zippo Lighters and his son, my brother and Kimi's manager. Incredible and down to Earth. Great day for sure, one I'll never forget.
There were 3 other NASCAR drivers Chastain and Suarez, can't remember the 3rd's name. Here's Kimi in the red Camaro, he later switched to the gray car and apparently blew the engine up. He got pushed back in to the pit by another driver who scraped up the bumper on the grey car as well as the bumper on his car. These cars were shipped in this morning from Detroit and had zero miles on them and 570 hp. The linked video is taken from exit of the Inner-Loop. Mind you, Kimi has never been on this track. First lap he was right behind Ross Chastain, next lap he was 10 car lengths ahead. Unbelievable.
Not only does WGI produce some of the most exciting races and memorable finishes on the NASCAR schedule, but this year, it also serves as the penultimate race to a regular season that has seen 15 different winners. Five of those winners had never won before the 2022 season.
Even beyond its playoff importance, there's another reason why this race will be historic. Seven different countries will be represented, the most ever in a single NASCAR Cup Series race.
The 2010 Cup race at Sonoma and the 2013 Cup race at Watkins Glen come close, with six nations represented. Additionally, only seven times in the 70+ year history of the sport has an international driver taken the checkered flag in the Cup Series.
This weekend's grid will be made up of some very prominent international drivers, with very successful careers. Of course, there's full-time NASCAR driver and native of Monterrey, Mexico, Daniel Suarez. The former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion became the first Mexican-born driver to ever win a Cup Series race earlier this year at Sonoma Raceway
But then there's Kimi Raikkonen, 2007 Formula 1 World Champion and winner of 21 races over his remarkable 20-year career. In his highly anticipated Cup Series debut, the Finnish driver will pilot the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet as a teammate to both Suarez and Ross Chastain, who have combined to win two of the four road course races run so far this year. He has two previous NASCAR starts, one each in the Truck and Xfinity Series back in 2011. He'll certainly be one to watch, but the average NASCAR fan may take issue with him being called the 'Iceman' as it's also the nickname of NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte
Like Raikkonen, Mike Rockenfeller will be making his NASCAR Cup Series debut. The veteran German racer is best known for his overall victory as an Audi driver in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as capturing the 2013 DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) title. He will be behind the wheel of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend, and is one I believe might just be the best-performing driver out of this group on Sunday
Team Hezeberg is a fairly new team at the Cup level, but they are no strangers to fielding international drivers. Former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve made his Daytona 500 debut with the team in February, driving the No. 27 Ford Mustang. Since then, they have run Dutchman and 2x NASCAR Euro Series champion Loris Hezemans in every road course race
Team Hezeberg recently entered a second car for the first time at the Indianapolis Road Course, with Russian driver Daniil Kvyat behind the wheel of the No. 26 Toyota Camry. They will do so again at Watkins Glen, where Kvyat hopes to improve upon Indy where he failed to finish the race due to mechanical issues. The ex-F1 driver and Red Bull prospect started over 100 races, scoring three podiums during his career there
The list continues with UK racing driver Kyle Tilley, who is listed as the driver of the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford Mustang. Of the part-timers on this list, he is the most experienced NASCAR driver of them all, with just four Cup starts over the last two years. The sports car driver has a class victory in the 2021 Rolex 24 at Daytona, and is part of the 2021 title-winning Asian Le Mans Series team in the LMP2-Am classThe 33 American drivers on the entry list bumps the list up to seven. It may not seem that impressive in comparison to the current F1 grid or the average IndyCar field, but it's still an important milestone for NASCAR as they continue to work towards expanding their audience.
With a shot at the playoffs on the line and all these drivers of varying racing backgrounds, Sunday is sure to be another Watkins Glen race that we won't soon forget.
Really incredible to see the NextGen Cup cars in the rain today for a few laps. It was the first time they have ever seen rain. Kimi was moving up and steadily mid-pack after the track dried when he got bumped off the track and put out of the race in the 3rd Stage. My wife, nephew and I got to meet him again and hang out with him for about 20 minutes today before the race at his motor coach. He was smiling and laughing and really looking forward to moving up. "You never know, someone can make a big mistake which benefits you and you're in the right place at the right time and maybe that's great" or words very close to that effect. I tried to get his haiku book sent to me but couldn't get it delivered quick enough after thinking about it for the race. Oh well . . .
Rusty was Guest MC, him and my brother are great friends. He sat down at our table and chatted up some friends from VA and CA who are hardcore NASCAR fans. Whatta guy!
Jeff Gordon stepped away from NASCAR full-time after 2015, and retired from racing entirely after winning the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Most assumed he would never drive competitively again — it seemed like he was more intent on competing against other teams in an executive role. Since retirement, the winningest driver of NASCAR’s modern era has been the Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsport, the team where he spent his entire Cup Series career. But that doesn’t mean he can’t get a few more laps in.
Jeff Gordon is coming out of retirement for one weekend only. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be making a one-off appearance in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America Presented by the Cayman Islands. Gordon will be racing in the IMSA-sanctioned one-make Porsche 911 GT3 Cup series when it visits Indianapolis Motor Speedway between September 2nd and 4th. The native Hoosier isn’t a stranger to success at the Speedway with a record five wins at the Brickyard 400.
Jeff Gordon said in a press release
“I’m looking forward to getting back in a race car and competing against a talented field of teams and drivers. It’s always special when I get a chance to compete at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ray (Evernham) and I have always talked about running another race together, and we felt like Indy was the perfect place. It’ll be a fun way to spend the holiday weekend and make some new memories.”
Yes, Gordon will also be reuniting with long-term crew chief Ray Evernham for the first time since 1999. Gordon won three of his four Cup championships with Evernham atop the pit box. The duo, enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, will have to contend with a field of 30 other drivers on Indianapolis’ 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
It should be noted that Gordon wasn’t a pushover when it came to making both left- and right-hand turns: Nine of Gordon’s 93 Cup Series race wins came on road courses, still the series record for road-course victories. And yes, his 911 GT3 Cup car will wear the No. 24.
Yeah, curious how you ban/enforce that.
They said his lap time was 2 sec faster than pole
But it would likely only be possible on a short track like that, at somewhere like TMS or Indy it's not sharp enough to get the benefit.
Also lucky they don't have access gaps like road courses.
Enforce it by saying if you crash, the lap you crashed on doesn't count.
Not ideal, but that's a simple way to make sure people don't do this on purpose.
This is kind of like Alex Zanardi's "The Pass" at the corkscrew. The immediate reaction is that it was so cool. However, it's both dangerous and not completely sporting. Good for them for exploiting a loophole, but time to plug the loophole.
Yeah, no doubt NASCAR will have something to say about it going forward.
A bit like the wipers on the cars., teams were using them for a minor aero advantage, so NASCAR had to make a ruling about when the wipers could be fitted to the cars.
Technically he didn't crash, he sideswiped the wall for a great distance but that was not crashing. There is no simple solution as there have been crashes on the final straight in many NASCAR races. I can imagine NASCAR will introduce some ruling to prevent future brave wall passes. It did create alot of media attention which NASCAR needs these days with waning fanbase.
Yeah, I'm still curious how much damage was done to the wall & the car, cost wise.
Aesthetically, the car looked ok, but not really evident if there was any major mechanical damage. I imagine the alignment was way out after that, he seemed to ride the wall on the opposite side of the track as well, after the finish.
Yeah, I'm still curious how much damage was done to the wall & the car, cost wise.
Aesthetically, the car looked ok, but not really evident if there was any major mechanical damage. I imagine the alignment was way out after that, he seemed to ride the wall on the opposite side of the track as well, after the finish.
The car doesn't appear drivable after the crash if you look at the in car camera. And his interview after the race said the car is messed up and the suspension and steering was shot. So it's a crash.
If it's not a crash, then drivers can do this every lap.
I suspect the engine was probably overstressed, as he basically floored it against the wall.
NASCAR cars sideswipe the wall, tap bumpers, and each other quite often. After the majority of races, various sheet metal panels is removed from the cars from many incidents, do the teams consider it crashing? From what I've read until a front or rear clip is cut out and a new clip welded back in, it's just racing.
This incident probably caused more than sheet metal, be curious to see the total damage.
This year's hotly anticipated 24 Hours of Le Mans will be remembered for two things. At the front, four new factory entries debuting in the same season mean that the hundredth anniversary race promises its most competitive field ever. Just behind them, though, is the other thing that makes this year's race special: the Automobile Club l'Ouest let NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports bring a modified version of one of their Camaro stock cars to run the whole race.
This entry, the latest in the Garage56 program that has previously given this race a Deltawing and a Nissan that is for legal purposes explicitly not to be called a Deltawing, is exactly what you are thinking. That is a stock car, built to the Next Gen specs raced on a weekly basis in NASCAR since last year, with modifications necessary for it to run competitive laps and survive 24 hours at the Circuit de la Sarthe. It is no surprise that the resulting car looks and sounds ferocious, but you may be surprised to learn just how fast it actually is.
After months of installing and testing major upgrades, the Garage56 Camaro is more than just quick enough to keep up with the GT2-spec cars running in GTE-Am. Through one day of testing, the car's quickest time of 3:53.761 is more than two seconds faster than any time set by a car built to the race's standard GT regulations.
Although testing times are not necessarily representative of final race pace, that specific number is so far ahead of the GTE-Am field that it actually lands on something significant. In a lap with traffic not run for the fastest possible number, the Camaro put down a time quick enough for fourth in GTE-Am during last year's practice-qualifying sessions. Project a typical increase in pace over a race weekend onto the team and, suddenly, the Camaro should be fighting to outqualify every GT car in the race.
As the car is unclassified, beating all of the GT cars will not represent an actual victory of any sort. It is a very impressive bragging right, though, and one GM, NASCAR, and Hendrick Motorsports are surely squarely aiming to achieve.
No matter how fast the car actually is, though, the most memorable thing about the Garage56 stock car is how it looks on track next to the rest of the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid. Next to a GT car, it is brutish and simple. Next to a top-level prototype like the Ferrari 499 P, it appears to be from a different world entirely. On Saturday, we get to see how a NASCAR team's full effort to field the best possible car at Le Mans squares up against both in 24 hours at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
08-04-2022, 09:53 AM
Enforce it by saying if you crash, the lap you crashed on doesn't count.
