Big blend of backgrounds: Garage 56 aces, other new faces flock to COTA
AUSTIN, Texas — When former Formula 1 champion Kimi Räikkönen signed on for a NASCAR Cup Series one-off last year, his addition to the field stoked a bit of extra wattage for Watkins Glen and a level of added intrigue from other motorsports realms. He certainly wasn’t the first to bring international flair to the stateside stock-car crowd, but his appearance wound up opening some doors.
Räikkönen is back this weekend at the Circuit of The Americas as part of one of the strongest fields of extracurricular racers in the Cup Series in recent memory. He’ll be mixing it up with another F1 champ in Jenson Button, a sports-car ace in Jordan Taylor, IndyCar regular Conor Daly and a returning seven-time Cup Series champ, the moonlighting Jimmie Johnson, when Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) goes green.
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Button, Johnson and Taylor form three-quarters of the driver lineup — along with German sports-car vet Mike Rockenfeller — for the Garage 56 effort that will tackle the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. This weekend, the trio are all in close proximity in separate stalls in the COTA paddock.
“It‘s going to be fun. We’ve been talking trash like crazy on text so it‘s been a lot of fun already,” Johnson said with a laugh. “If we could just have (Rockenfeller) out there somewhere, it would be nice having all four of us bouncing around.”
Taylor, the 31-year-old IMSA champion, managed the best starting spot of the group, putting the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet fourth on the starting lineup for his Cup Series debut. Taylor was actually in COTA for Garage 56 testing when he got the call from Hendrick’s Jeff Gordon, asking him to sub in for the injured Chase Elliott. He jumped at the chance and has so far made good on the opportunity.
“I mean, it’s a relief, to be honest,” said Taylor, who was also a respectable 10th in Friday’s practice. “I think coming in here, everyone knows it’s a winning car, a winning team. So if the car’s not out front, there’s one different variable, which is the driver that’s not doing the job. So I knew there’s a lot of eyes on it to perform, and I’m just glad to make everyone proud, to be honest.”
Button’s Cup Series debut also comes Sunday, marking his first race in nearly three years as his post-retirement tour continues. The 2009 F1 world champ placed the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford in the 24th spot — just one row behind Räikkönen in 22nd.
Button came to NASCAR at the urging of Johnson, and Sunday’s start is scheduled to be the first of three for the 43-year-old driver this season.
“Jimmie has pushed me to race in the Cup Series. So you know, if I’m slow, I blame him,” Button cracked. “But no, he said, ‘you’re gonna have a lot of fun,’ and Jordan is, he’s getting to grips with it as well. So, you know, we’re sharing a bit of information here and there, and it’s a lot of laughing in a good way. Very positive. And driving the car makes us smile; it’s scary at moments, but it also makes us smile, and I think that’s what it’s all about, and I think that’s why we’re enjoying it so much.”
Räikkönen’s entry is the second Cup Series effort both for him and Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 initiative, which started last year as an avenue for racing standouts on the global stage to give NASCAR a try. Team co-owner Justin Marks reiterated Saturday that Trackhouse’s No. 91 Chevrolet is set to make multiple starts this year, with driver and partner announcements still to come.
Both team and driver have a recent history of success at COTA. Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain broke through for his first Cup Series victory last year, and Räikkönen’s final triumph of his F1 career came here in 2018.
“At least I know that most of the things how it goes,” said Räikkönen, who finished a crash-shortened 37th last year in his Cup Series debut at Watkins Glen. “Is it going to get any better results? We‘ll find out. But I know the track, so that helps, but as I said before it‘s a lot different track with a NASCAR car than an F1 car. I feel more ready for sure on that side now that I know how the race goes and how everything else goes.”
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So far, a mutual embrace seems to exist among the Cup Series regulars and this race’s part-time entrants. The welcoming attitude may evaporate once fender meets fender in Sunday’s main event.
“It’s very exciting for sure. I’m glad that they’re wanting to step in and feel out these heavy stock cars,” said Tyler Reddick, who qualified second for 23XI Racing. “Certainly forever jealous and envious of what they’ve been able to do — Jordan, Kimi, Button — the things they’ve been able to do in their life is really remarkable. I’m glad that they’re excited enough to come compete with us and race with us.”
It’s also been a long-running dream for Taylor, who has maintained his stock-car fandom and Rodney Sandstorm alter-ego while excelling for Chevrolet’s Corvette Racing sports-car team.
“I mean, these are guys that I’ve been watching my whole life,” Taylor said after his qualifying effort. “You know, we (in IMSA) only race 11 times a year, so we have all those off-weekends to watch these guys. So yeah, it’s surreal to come out of the pits and hear, ‘You’ve got (Kevin) Harvick coming up behind you, (William) Byron’s in front of you, (Kyle) Larson’s up ahead.’ So hearing those names on the radio still doesn’t kind of feel like that’s actually that guy in that car.
“But yeah, it’s still kind of surreal, and tomorrow when we’re kind of door to door, I’m sure I’ll figure out what those guys are really like on the race track.”
