Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will team up with Trackhouse Racing for the road course race at Watkins Glen which is scheduled to take place on 21 August, driving a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 alongside team-mates Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain.
This will be the first time Kimi Raikkonen makes an appearance since he retirned from Formula One last season, at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The 2007 Formula 1 world champion with Scuderia Ferrari has history in NASCAR, as he took part in one Nationwide Series – which is currently known as Xfinity Series – race and one Truck Series race in 2011 with Kyle Busch Motorsports during time away from Formula 1 after leaving the Maranello team for the first time.
Kimi Raikkonen admitted that he was not initially looking at any racing “in a very serious way” after leaving Formula One, only for talks to accelerate with Trackside Racing and lead to the entry for Watkins Glen.
“We had more talks about it, how would it work, where the race would be, and all sorts of other things,” the former Ferrari driver explained – “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.” – he added.
Kimi Raikkonen’s entry with Trackhouse Racing comes as part of the team’s Project91 initiative, which is looking to expand NASCAR’s reach by dedicating its #91 car entry to international racing drivers. Alongside Chastain and Suarez, Trackhouse will have three drivers from three different countries for the race at Watkins Glen.
“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 – “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.
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The plan for Kimi Raikkonen will be to head to the United States with some time ahead of the even so he will get the chance to complete a test in the Chevrolet car, as well as driving the team’s simulator. Marks visited Kimi Raikkonen at his home in Switzerland to discuss this opportunity and “sold the whole thing well”, as confirmed by Kimi. The Finnish driver admitted that he also had other chances to make his racing return earlier in 2022, but wanted to give 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. 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.” – Kimi concluded.
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