"Victimized" F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. reportedly headed to NASCAR truck series
Crashing in Formula One is taken pretty seriously. Especially if you did it on purpose. Which goes a long way towards explaining why the motorsport community is calling for the blood of Nelson Piquet Jr. The disgraced Renault driver was, in the end, the perpetrator of the so-called Crashgate affair. But while his boss and manager Flavio Briatore was kicked out of Formula One (and any involvement in any FIA-sanctioned racing series) as a result, and technical director Pat Symonds received a five-year ban. For his part, Piquet walked as part of the whistle-blower deal brokered with the FIA. So it may be a little hard to appreciate the young driver's standpoint that he's suffered the most out of the affair.
On this side of the Atlantic, however, stock cars crash all the time. It's just part of the spectacle. So while Piquet, Jr. may have a hard time finding a race seat in Formula One or any other Euro-centric racing series, he may – like Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and Scott Speed, to name just a few – try his hand at stock car racing. Well, stock truck racing, more specifically.
According to new reports, Piquet is scheduled to test a Toyota Tundra race truck fielded by the Red Horse team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series over the next couple of weeks. The report, originating from Brazil's Globo television, further suggests that Piquet has a strategy in place to spend one year in trucks and another year in the second-tier Nationwide Series before graduating to the top-tier Sprint Cup in 2012. The question is, how will American racing drivers – and just as importantly, American racing fans – greet the embattled grand prix driver?
[Sources: AutoWeek and Autosport | Image: Robert Cianflone/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jv2k 10:40AM (10/05/2009)
I want to like nascar, I really do, but the oval tracks and hundreds of laps makes it hard.
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John Johnson 10:40AM (10/05/2009)
Well, he can't do much worse than his results in F1, might as well.
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Paul 3:08PM (10/05/2009)
Oh, he could do a lot worse: Fans like me are going to put his (potential) sponsors on the black list. Crashing intentionally to cheat is massively serious and deserves a life-time ban. Anyone who elects to look the other way and employ him is -- to me -- endorsing his cheating.
He might have been a great driver in GP2 but after what he did, there's way too much baggage with him off the track to put him back on.
Neil 4:17PM (10/05/2009)
Paul get over yourself. Are you saying anyone who gives a job to an ex-con endorses crime? People make mistakes. Clearly you don't make mistakes, but I know I do....all the time. Saying Piquet doesn't deserve a second chance or anyone that gives him a second chance is ok with cheating....is just stupid.
Kitko 4:28PM (10/05/2009)
Paul, Schumacher crashed intentionally and directly to two other drivers (Hill, Villeneuve). That was MUCH MORE dangerous than crashing on an empty stretch of a circuit.
Do you put Ferrari's sponsor on a black list? That includes Marlboro....
haloguy628 10:17PM (10/05/2009)
What rubs me more than the crashing is the fact that he was the instigator of the whole debacle in order to keep his job. He and his father cooked up the idea to keep him in F1 for any price.
Then when he could not fake it anymore in F1 and got fired, he went to FIA and spilled the beans to get back at Renault and actually claimed that he was just a participant and that it was Briatores idea.
I would not give this POS a job shoveling shiet. I hope he gets ostracized and run out of any motosport he attempts.
Mayoman 10:51AM (10/05/2009)
good riddance, I'm glad he's out of F1. The only reason he was in F1 to begin with was because of his name.
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Neil 11:13AM (10/05/2009)
If you watched GP2 I doubt you would say that. He and Lewis Hamilton were great in the 2006 series.
Landtat 11:04AM (10/05/2009)
Wait. He not only took a crash, but then he turned tail and blew a whistle.
This douche needs a lifetime ban.
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hyundaifans.com 11:25AM (10/05/2009)
Lifetime ban from F1. He already got that. No F1 team will ever touch him. This is why he has been relegated to NASCAR.
Keith 1:23PM (10/05/2009)
He doesn't deserve to drive a go-kart. He is not a whistle-blower, he is a guilty party, who didn't achieve the job security he wanted, and then finked. He should be banned for life from racing, any racing, period.
Landtat 2:18PM (10/05/2009)
Exactly what I meant. Not lifetime in F1, but any racing. Of course if he wants to be a track tester, ok. And by that I mean if he wants to lay down on the track while the cars run over his ass.
Landtat 11:05AM (10/05/2009)
Why can't my password be saved?
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Eric Liberatore 11:11AM (10/05/2009)
"try his hand at stock car racing. Well, stock truck racing."..Well truck racing...Well racing.
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Shiftright 11:16AM (10/05/2009)
From F1 to NASCAR...Trucks...That's the ultimate punishment for any driver, akin to Dante's fifth layer of Hell...
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jaydubz 12:19PM (10/05/2009)
I call it career suicide!
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Ben Roethig 11:31AM (10/05/2009)
Just what's needed, another back marker. With the exception of JPM, ex-F1 drivers haven't shown much of an ability to adapt. Apparently, they're too used to the computers doing their job for them.
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Franz 11:34AM (10/05/2009)
It pisses me off on so many levels that the FIA granted this sack of crap immunity in the whole crashgate fiasco. I'd be really surprised if he made it back into F1... but then again, I can see one of the smaller teams scooping him up if him & daddy turn up with enough money. Then he can go back to the business of crashing (17 crashes in 2 years of F1!)... it says a lot when you're a race car driver and you have to deliberately crash your car to keep your job. Flavio & Pat obviously felt he was better suited to crashing the car rather than driving like everybody else.
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Lagwolf 11:47AM (10/05/2009)
Well he is going into a series that is one of hell of a lot more exciting than F1. You know a series is in trouble when you hear more about the scandals and back-biting than the actually racing.
It will be interesting to see if he can hack it. And after the fracas in F1 he has a lot to prove.
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Landtat 11:54AM (10/05/2009)
I understand that Hyudaifans,
It just seems to me no racing org should let this guy in.
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