Nelson Piquet Jr. will run a full season in the lower-tiered NASCAR truck series, Autosport is reporting.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the state of news in Formula 1 this fine Monday.
No word yet on which team he will be driving for — the former F1 driver (you know why!) is expected to make that announcement later today.
Here’s Autosport’s rundown on Piquet’s first foray into American stock car racing:
Piquet competed in five Truck series events during the year, kicking off with an impressive performance on his debut at Daytona in February where he finished sixth driving for Red Horse Racing. He did four further outings, scoring two more top-10 finishes at Texas and Michigan, while racing a Toyota Tundra for Billy Ballew Motorsports.
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In the ARCA series he made his stock car debut in February at Daytona but his highlight came at Texas where he finished ninth after starting from pole position, racing a Toyota Camry for series frontrunner Eddie Sharp Racing.
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In August Piquet raced in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide series for the first time, making good use of his road-course experience at Watkins Glen to claim a seventh-place finish at the wheel of a Ford Fusion from Baker Curb Racing.
We — and probably everyone in the world who follows F1 — have probably given sufficient debate to Piquet’s career and whether he deserves anything approaching a second chance. And so I will leave it at this: The absolute best way for Piquet to put Singapore behind him is to win. It’s plain and simple.
Anyone out there tempted to root for Piquet if only to keep the bar high for F1 drivers? In other words, do you feel like he carries the F1 mantle and fans of NASCAR will judge F1 by his success, ala a Juan Pablo Montoya or anything like that? Or do they even know where Piquet comes from?
