Why International Racers Are Flocking to NASCAR
A few weeks ago, sports car superstar Kamui Kobayashi drove a NASCAR Cup Series car for the first time at Virginia International Raceway. He was there with 23XI Racing, a team co-owned by driver Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, preparing for his Cup debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
He mastered the car in no time.
“When I was in the simulator, I was like: 'This is going to be quite tough,’” Kobayashi told Road & Track. “But after like three, four, five laps, I felt pretty good.”
“It wasn't even five laps,” his teammate Tyler Reddick told us. “Third lap in the car at VIR, a very challenging racetrack, and I'm watching him barrel it into turn one at the limit. He knows how deep to drive it in, how hard to apply the brakes, the importance of holding the wheel straight with the heavy stock car, how to maximize engine braking.
“I was blown away for a couple seconds, then I remembered: ‘Oh yeah, this is Kamui Kobayashi.’”
Internationally, “Kamui Kobayashi” is synonymous with “really good.” He’s a longtime Toyota driver who, at 36, has raced in Formula One and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the FIA World Endurance Championship title. In 2021, Toyota made him the boss of the WEC team he drives for.
Kobayashi decided to try NASCAR’s top-level Cup Series four years ago, and he asked to do it “so many times.” This weekend, he’ll run the No. 67 car alongside 23XI’s full-time drivers, Reddick and Bubba Wallace. When he takes the green flag, Kobayashi will be the second Japanese-born driver to ever do so in Cup.
“I'm actually a big fan of NASCAR,” he told R&T. “My first motorsport to watch on TV when I was like four years old was an oval race. I would say: ‘That's cool. I want to be a race-car driver.’ That's why I'm here now.
“When I entered motorsports, obviously, you start in go-karts. Growing up in open wheel, the way you dream is Formula One. After you retire from Formula One, I did endurance races, but I was always thinking: ‘How can I get to NASCAR?’”
Kobayashi is among a storm of non-NASCAR drivers to run Cup this year, for two reasons: The series keeps adding road courses to its schedule, making it more palpable for international drivers, and its new “Next Gen” car is more like a GT car, thus more adaptable to sports-car racers. In the Indy field alone, Kobayashi is joined by Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, current Supercars championship leader Brodie Kostecki, F1 champion Jenson Button, and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller.
Van Gisbergen won on the Chicago street course a few weeks ago—the first driver to win their Cup debut since 1963—and decided to leave Supercars for a NASCAR career next year. Asked when he made that decision during a media session this week, van Gisbergen said: “It was probably even before the race. Like, after qualifying in Chicago, we were talking that night—just [about] how fun the event was … I’ve kind of been missing that a little bit in Australia lately.”
Reddick, one of van Gisbergen’s top challengers in Chicago, said the Next Gen car allows other drivers to be competitive because it “rewards aggression” more than the last one did.
“This car has 18-inch wheels,” Reddick said. “A little bit wider tread width as well, and with that, the brakes are much larger than they were with the 15-inch wheels on the previous car. Where a lot of drivers would have issues under braking with the [last] car was with the old-school truck arms, and just how much those flex and wheel hop. Once you had axle hop—wheel hop—you were more than likely crashing. The more you had that axle hop, if you didn't crash the car, you would just shake all the parts loose. You had to really go into the approach of: ‘If I'm going to push this car, I'm going to save it for the end of the race, because I don't want to just rip the car apart.’
“With the Next Gen car, that's totally different. With independent rear suspension, all the beefy suspension parts it has, you don't really have situations where the car falls apart like the other car did. You can launch it across curbs as hard as you want.”
The storm of non-NASCAR drivers into Cup means teams are running more part-time cars, like 23XI’s No. 67. Earlier this year, Travis Pastrana drove it in the Daytona 500.
“This is the second time we've done it this year, and they've both been very intentional,” Steve Lauletta, 23XI’s president, told R&T. “We're only still part way through our third season as a team. To be able to lean on Travis Pastrana and his reach, and now to be able to lean on Kamui and his global motorsports prowess—it allows for a lot of opportunity for a team like ours.
“You could spin yourself into doing this a lot, but then that does take your focus away. What we're really trying to do is, we've got one car secured in the playoffs with Tyler. Bubba has made tremendous grounds over the past several weeks on points. Once we get them both hopefully locked in, the 67 and Kamui's program will be in the rear-view mirror and we're back to business as usual.”
Kobayashi hasn’t had much time in the car, but he told R&T he’s “pretty confident.”
“I think the car is definitely quite familiar,” Kobayashi said. “After this interview session, we are going to go to the simulator session, the lap time being quite competitive as well. NASCAR has only 20 minutes of practice, then you go into qualifying. But after this VIR experience, [I’m] positive to be adjustable in this short practice.”
Kobayashi only has one real worry at Indy: pit road.
“I did the simulator, and to find pit lane entry in Indy, I took like two or three laps,” Kobayashi said. “I can't see it. I have no idea where exactly pit lane entry is. I’m like driving like a grandmama, like: 'Where's the pit lane entry?'”
There are also pit road speed limits. The cars Kobayashi typically drives adhere to the limits with the push of a button, but NASCAR drivers have to do it themselves.
NASCAR officials clock speeds in individual timing segments as drivers go down pit road, and because the cars don’t have speedometers, they use a light system—go too far into the warning lights, and you have to back off to lower your segment speed.
Reddick said it becomes more natural to follow the speed limit over time, but for Indy, Kobayashi doesn’t have time.
“There’s time to be gained and lost on pit road rolling time, but the penalty is so severe if you speed,” Reddick said. “It is a lot to keep up with. You're trying to look at your lights, you're keeping an eye on the cars around you in case there’s an issue or a stack up so you don't destroy your race car, and also, you’ve got to nail your pit road entry. You can't drive through too many boxes, and you’ve got to hit your marks in the box too.”
Reddick said another challenge for new drivers like Kobayashi will be restarts, where there’s carnage and a double standard.
“Cup drivers are very hypocritical,” Reddick laughed. “We can run people over, but new people can't run us over. But if you're not aggressive, people will take advantage of you. I think it’s [about] trying to not leave the cars around you an option.
“If there's a space, take it. Maybe don’t put your vehicle into the corner alongside somebody else with an aggressive maneuver, but try and fill the holes.”
But Kobayashi isn’t too worried about restarts, or the race.
“If you ask other drivers, I think many people know about how I drive,” he said. “If I decide I go, I go. I feel quite comfortable with the team. Lap times came straight away. I'm not really concerned in terms of speed; it’s just every detail. To win this kind of race, you need to have everything good: pit lane, pit-stop position, pit-stop strategy.
“My confidence level is quite high. I’m just ready to go race.”
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