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From the Marbles - NASCAR

From the Marbles

Wed May 18 04:30pm EDT

Kimi Raikkonen officially joins NASCAR Friday

By Nick Bromberg

Former Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is set to make his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck Series on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Earlier this year, Raikkonen signed a deal with Kyle Busch Motorsports for a 'limited number of races.' With Busch in his own No. 18 truck on Friday, Raikkonen will drive the No. 15 -- presumably with KBM equipment -- under the Vision Aviation Racing banner. VAR wasn't entered in last week's Truck race at Dover but won the first race of the season at Daytona with Michael Waltrip in spoilergate.

Raikkonen will have to qualify on speed for the race, but given the caliber of equipment he's in, it shouldn't be an issue with a clean lap.

According to a Rue Frontenac report in April (browser translator recommended), Raikkonen is paying Busch $100,000 per race to run in the Truck Series.

If you're looking for Raikkonen's first media availability to be full of information about his transition to NASCAR and his first-rumored pairing with Foster Gillett, you're probably going to be disappointed. If you thought Matt Kenseth was truly Flatline, or if you think Jimmie Johnson is vanilla, you're going to have a hard time coming up with superlatives to describe Raikkonen with the media if his past interviews are any indication.

Raikkonen, 31, won the 2007 F1 title and left F1 after 2009. Since then, he's been driving rally cars and has tested at Gresham Motorsports Park and Rockingham Speedway.

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