This morning, former Forumla 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen drove his first practice in a Nascar race truck ahead of the race in Charlotte tonight. See if you can spot the moment where a Scandinavian flick comes in handy.
Compared to the World Rally Champinoship cars and Raikkonen's former rides in F1, racing a steel tube-frame Toyota powered by an iron-block, pushrod, carbureted V8 probably feels like steering a team of mules. Raikkonen's topped out at 172.717 mph, ranking him 30th of the 36 drivers in the morning session, and 30th of 37th in the afternoon. His first complaint of the car being "loose" came midway through. (Hint: It's supposed to be that way.)
Raikkonen's Nascar learning curve probably has a few more power slides to come, and his second session apparently included his first brush with the wall. Raikkonen later told reporters he hopes to get some time in a Nascar Cup car next weekend: "If I completely suck, there's no reason to come back. Hopefully, it goes better than today.''