Formula One champ talks of going Cup; Dale Jr. clarifies comment

Kimi Raikkonen, who makes his NASCAR debut tonight in the Camping World Truck Series, spoke to the media Friday for the first time, indicating that he would like to run in Cup later this year and also hinting that if things go well tonight, he might drive a Nationwide car next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

He was one of a number of drivers who spoke before practice Friday.

Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One champion, is driving for Kyle Busch’s team tonight. Raikkonen made it through both practice sessions Friday morning without any major incidents (he did scrape the wall). He ranked 30th quickest among 36 drivers in the first practice session and was 30th among 37 drivers in the final truck practice session.

Raikkonen, who is slipping his NASCAR events in between rally races he’s scheduled to do, said he wanted to come to NASCAR because “I want to try different things. I was interested to see how it is. I don’t have any plans for next year in anything I do.

“If I completely suck, there’s no reason to come back. Hopefully, it goes better than today.’’

As for his NASCAR schedule this year, Raikkonen said: “I’m looking at this weekend and hopefully next weekend I’m here. Then after that, there’s no real plans yet. Hopefully, I can get to run some Cup races that would be nice. There’s not awful lot of planning. I’ll try to do the best now and see what happens.’’

DALE JR. CLARIFIES COMMENT

“I know a couple of weeks ago I was talking to some media and I said that I didn’t feel like a win was close and what that meant is that I’m unassuming about it. I’m not goin to sit here and go “yeah guys, I think a win is two weeks away or I should win next week. I’m just not going to be that arrogant about it. If we keep running good, it will happen. Hopefully it will happen. I got home after I said that and my friends were calling me and e-mailing me, going “You don’t feel like a win is close? What’s your problem?’ I’m like, “Nah, that’s not what I meant but I’ll try to do a better job of choosing my words more wisely, I guess. I was just trying to be honest.’’

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