World champion Raikkonen to make top-tier NASCAR Cup Series debut at Watkins Glen

The Iceman is back – 2007 Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Watkins Glen in October as he returns to stock car racing.

Raikkonen, 42, will take the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the Team Trackhouse squad – owned by ex-racer Justin Marks and popstar Pitbull – for the NASCAR Cup road course race at the ex-F1 venue in the United States on August 21.

The Finnish driver, a veteran of 349 Formula 1 Grand Prix starts, 21 wins, 103 podiums and of course, that championship with Ferrari in 2007, retired from F1 at the end of the 2021 season.

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That wasn't the first time he'd bowed out from F1, Raikkonen having left Ferrari at the end of 2009 to compete in rallying and the third-tier NASCAR Truck Series. This August, he'll drive the more powerful Cup Series stock car for a winning team.

Team Trackhouse are targeting more drivers from outside the world of NASCAR to take over one of their cars as part of an initiative called 'Project 91'. Perhaps other former F1 drivers will follow suit...