Tag Archives for DeutscheTourenwagenMasters
DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR
Filed under: Motorsports
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times, but it warrants repeating – in context especially – that there exists an ocean of difference between stock car racing in America and touring cars overseas. And we’re talking about more than geography here. The cars are different, the tracks are different, the drivers, the fans… and so too is the racing. But the two are about to take one step closer when two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekström takes on NASCAR.
Now Ekstrom wouldn’t be the first European driver to test drive a stock car, but he’s already done that. What we’re talking about here is the full contest of an actual NASCAR race (made possibly by Red Bull, which sponsors his Audi A4 DTM and the #83 Toyota Camry he’ll be driving Stateside). And not in a feeder series, either: the Toyota/Save Mart 350 is a full-fledged round of the top-tier Sprint Cup, not the Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series or ARCA junior league like some European drivers have started out with when making the transition.
Mind you, the race is being held at Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) in Sonoma, California – one of only two road-courses on the series calendar – but the round at the Lausitzring EuroSpeedway (run partially on the banked tri-oval) ranks among the fourteen DTM races which Ekström’s won, so he very well might stand a fighting chance on an American oval, too. In the meantime we’ll be watching the weekend after next to see how Mattias fares in his auspicious NASCAR debut. Details in the press release after the jump.
[Source: Audi]
Continue reading DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR
DTM champ Mattias Ekström swaps tin-tops for NASCAR originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
