Kamui Kobayashi, a former Formula One driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and came in third, will make his NASCAR Cup Series start in August. His participation shows that the Cup Series is becoming the world’s best stock car racing series. Kobayashi will race for the first time on August 13 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He will drive a 23XI Racing Toyota Camry. He worked for Toyota for most of his career, first in Formula One and then in the World Endurance Championship. He won the Toyota 24 Hours of Le Mans and two titles in 2021. He has also won a Super Formula race, two Daytona 24 Hours, and a Super GT race. The experienced Japanese driver follows in the footsteps of Formula One winner Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, who made their Cup Series starts at road course races last year. Race Fans say that Kobayashi is only the second Japanese driver to fight at the highest level of NASCAR. The first was Hideo Fukuyama, who won two JGTC GT300 races and took part in four races in 2002 and 2003.6 Kobayashi says that NASCAR is a lot like baseball. “NASCAR is the American ideal for a driver, and it has a different racing culture than Japan and Europe.” “For us, especially the Japanese, Toyota has been in NASCAR for a long time, and I don’t think any other Japanese driver has ever raced in a Toyota in the Cup Series.” I couldn’t be happier to have this chance. Kobayashi and Button, who also moved from F1 to NASCAR, will race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend. Kobayashi will drive a Toyota hypercar, while the British driver will drive a modified Chevrolet Camaro Cup race car. Even though they won’t be fighting against each other directly, it will be nice to see them race together again after almost a decade.
