Juan Pablo Montoya thought former Formula 1 teammate Kimi Raikkonen did a good job in his NASCAR debut, and expects to see him in a Sprint Cup Series race this season.
But if Raikkonen is serious about NASCAR, Montoya said the former world champion will have to move to the United States and race as often as possible.
"If you are going to do it, you've got to do it properly," Montoya said Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "It will bite you if you don't do it properly."
Raikkonen made his NASCAR debut in Friday night's Trucks Series race, finishing 15th driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. The Finn has not officially announced his next race, but Busch admitted after the race there's a car ready for Raikkonen to use in next week's Nationwide Series event at Charlotte.
Busch insisted KBM does not own the car, and it's believed Raikkonen will be officially entered by Nemco Motorsports, the team owned by Joe Nemechek.
Montoya believes Raikkonen will quickly make the move through Nationwide and into the elite Sprint Cup Series to see if he likes driving stock cars. Montoya, a Colombian who lives full-time in Miami, is in his fifth season driving for Chip Ganassi. He's won two Sprint Cup race, both on road courses, and qualified once for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
"He's got to get to Cup," said Montoya, who added he thinks Raikkonen can make the transition. "He needs experience. He's been around, he's done Formula 1, he's done it all. So for him, he's got to understand the ovals and he's got to get a Cup ride.
"But I think if he had a decent car, he'd be fine."
Raikkonen spent nine years in F1, driving for Sauber, McLaren and Ferrari. He totaled 18 wins, 62 podium finishes and won the 2007 championship.
He's currently racing for the World Rally Car Championship with his own team, ICE 1 Racing, and is ranked eighth in the overall standings. He's not scheduled to compete again in that series until next month in Greece.
Raikkonen said after the race it went better than he expected after struggling through two practice sessions earlier in the day, but he wished he'd finished higher and thought the 10 cautions slowed his rhythm.
"The racing was fun," Raikkonen said. "Too many cautions. Every time when I feel the car starts to work better then you have a caution and it takes a long time before the handling comes back."
Raikkonen twice hit the wall, and missed his call to pit the first time crew chief Rick Ren tried to bring him in. Ren, who is also the general manager of KBM, blamed it on the team chatter.
"There was too much talking going on the radio," Ren said. "I wanted to pit but everybody was on the radio. I've had experienced Cup guys do the same thing. It was no big deal."
Although Raikkonen wasn't sure of the rules for passing before the start/finish line on a restart, and was warned early in the race by NASCAR, Ren praised the driver.
"What impressed me more than anything was restarts, he didn't spin the tyres and was pushing people," Ren said. "I am wondering if F1 cars, they put down so much power that he's got a really good feel for when the tyres are slipping."
Overall, the experience was good, Raikkonen said, and he enjoyed all the interaction with fellow drivers who made a point to speak to him. There's no camaraderie in F1, and Montoya joked he probably spoke to Raikkonen more on Friday than he did the entire time the two were teammates.
"I just went to say 'Hi' and see how he was doing," Montoya said. "People did it to me here and I was really shocked, so if I can help, I will lend a hand."
It was the first time Montoya said he'd spoken to Raikkonen since Montoya walked away from his F1 ride in July, 2006. Montoya thought he was able to give KBM team members more assistance than he was Raikkonen.
"More the team than him, telling them why he's so loose and why he is struggling," Montoya said. "Our driving styles were a little bit different in Formula 1, but I know what he would like out of a car."
Source: F1Pulse.com
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