The 2007 world champion navigated through his first Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions on Saturday at Watkins Glen without any on-track incidents and will line up 27th for Sunday’s race.
His fellow international Cup debutants, 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Mike Rockenfeller (Spire Chevrolet) and fellow ex-F1 racer Daniil Kvyat (Hezeberg Toyota), will start 33rd and 36th respectively.
While he was not in contention for pole on his first outing in a motorsport event since his final F1 outing in last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Raikkonen showed solid race pace and his biggest complaint was he would have liked more track time.
“I wish there had been more laps, it just felt like there is a lot of potential,” said the Finn, who is campaigning the #91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
“I’m not sure which line to take and just not enough laps to put everything together. But yeah, it was fun.
“Quite a lot of what I sort of expected after the simulator. Obviously, there’s always a difference but the fine data is never shown in the simulator.
“At least I knew the track, but I think, yeah, I needed to be a bit more better in a few places. Some places I thought I was pretty okay.
“But you know, it’s good. I didn’t expect anything and we are somewhat in the middle, so it’s okay.”
Kimi Raikkonen
Photo by: Project91
Raikkonen’s appearance in a Cup Series race is part of Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 initiative which is looking to expand NASCAR’s reach by introducing talented international racing drivers to the series.
To prepare for this weekend’s race, the 42-year-old brought his entire family to the United States for several weeks to immerse himself in the experience.
During that time he’s done simulator work, driven in iRacing events, participated in pitstop practice at the Trackhouse shop and recently took part in his “Select Driver Orientation Test” at Virginia International Raceway.
Asked why he would risk potential “failure” in moving to a different form of motorsports, Raikkonen dismissed the suggestion.
“I don’t see any risk. Why not?” he said.
“What do I have to lose? That I‘ve done bad in a NASCAR race or bad in any race? I don’t care. I do it for myself.
“Good or bad result, it could happen even if I did 20 races. They all could be bad for many different reasons.
“I don’t see anything negative, I think it’s great.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of drivers that would like to have a chance and try, but it’s not very easy. So, maybe it opens some doors that in future there’s more chance to try to get more Europeans.”
Kimi Raikkonen
Photo by: Project91
Raikkonen said his remaining focus in preparing for Sunday’s race was to become familiar with NASCAR rules.
“You know, not making any silly mistakes on that side, hopefully, and we’ll see what we can do with the car,” he said.
“We had a little bit of an idea from where we started and where we went and maybe somewhere halfway is better, and you know, we try to improve.
“I want to have fun, but also do as well as we can.”