Times wires
Friday, April 1, 2011
Raikkonen dips toe into NASCAR
Former Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen will be the latest former open-wheel driver to give NASCAR a look.
The 2007 world champ for Ferrari will test a truck Monday for Kyle Busch Motorsports on the half-mile oval at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga., autosport.com reported.
The team confirmed that NASCAR gave Raikkonen the okay to compete May 20 in the truck race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
"I think that some of these guys from the Formula One, or from the open-wheel background I should say, trying to take a step in NASCAR and see how it is, is pretty neat," said Kyle Busch, who was otherwise vague about his team's plans with Raikkonen.
"I think that NASCAR, as big as it is, a lot of drivers want to see how they can do over here. … I hope that he (Kimi) gets the things worked out that he wants worked out and that he can come over here and run some trucks or run whatever he is going to run."
Raikkonen, 31, of Finland has been driving in the World Rally series since leaving F1 after the 2009 season and still has rally commitments this year.
Top Fuel belongs to Dixon early
Defending NHRA Top Fuel season champion Larry Dixon took the qualifying lead Friday in the SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dixon, who earned one of his 12 season victories at the track last year, had a 3.904-second run at 312.78 mph to lead the qualifying order in the 7,000-horsepower category. Cruz Pedregon (4.145 seconds, 306.19 mph) led the Funny Car field and Mike Edwards (6.709, 205.63) topped Pro Stock. Two more qualifying runs are scheduled today; eliminations are Sunday.
Elsewhere
Joey Logano and David Setzer crashed their primary cars during the final Sprint Cup practice at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Setzer likely will not be able to qualify today as his team, owned by Brian Keselowski, did not have a backup car ready. If that team can't make an attempt, all 43 of the remaining entries will make Sunday's field. Logano will go to a backup to qualify for Sunday's Goody's 500. … Kyle Busch needs to lead 332 laps Sunday to reach 20,000 laps led for his career across all three major NASCAR series.
Times wires