“It’s Difficult to Take a Guy Like Kimi Raikkonen”- After Shane Van Gisbergen’s Heroics, Justin Marks Has Potential Bad News for the Ferrari F1 Legend

Does the name Juan Pablo Montoya ring a bell? The Former F1 driver fulfilled his dream of driving in NASCAR and left the McLaren F1 team midway through 2006. He ended up winning three races across NASCAR Cup and Xfinity. Not all F1 drivers who go to NASCAR are successful. Kimi Raikkonen has been served with potentially bad news by Justin Marks after Shane Van Gisbergen’s Heroics. What are the heroics? What is the bad news?

Ferrari Legend Kimi Raikkonen retired at the end of the 2021 season. Post his F1 career, the Finnish driver chose NASCAR as his form of adrenaline rush provider and drove the #91 cars for the track house team. However earlier this year it was announced that Shane Van Gisbergen will be replacing Kimi Raikkonen. And boy oh boy did Van Gisbergen make an impact on his first race. 

During his first race for the trackhouse team, Shane Van Gisbergen went on to win the Grant Park 220. Heroics by the Kiwi driver. Van Gisbergen is a 3X Supercars champion and currently drives for Triple 8. Nonetheless, these heroics of the Kiwi driver strikes as bad news for Kimi Raikkonen and his hopes of making a NASCAR comeback in the #91 cars. 

According to Speedwaydigest.com, Justin Marks, the owner of the Trackhouse team said  “I’m pretty confident that it’s Shane’s seat right now. He did such an incredible job. Obviously just put on an incredible, incredible race today.” Justin also alluded to the talent Shane possesses in comparison to Ferrari legend Raikkonen. He said, “Really it was — because it’s difficult to take a guy like Kimi Raikkonen who has raced Formula 1 and put him in a full-bodied stock car. Obviously incredible talent, but there is a lot to learn there; whereas Shane has had a lot of experience in cars like this.”

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Marks explained how Kimi is an F1 legend but there’s a lot of experience needed in a stock car to get fast in it whereas Van Gisbergen drives in the Supercars series, which is somewhat similar to the NASCAR Cup series in terms of Machinery. Even Triple 8’s managing director is ready to let Van Gisbergen go if he wants to race in NASCAR from 2024 onwards.

Jamie Whincup on Shane Van Gisbergen being free to join NASCAR from 2024 onwards

Shane Van Gisbergen’s current contract with his Supercars team, Triple 8 runs until the end of 2024. However, after the win in his first NASCAR race, track house might want to sign a permanent deal with Van Gisbergen. Triple 8’s managing director Jamie Whincup suggested that if next year Van Gisbergen wants to join NASCAR or any other series that he wants to take in, the team won’t stand in his way and will sort or the contractual matters.

According to Motorsport.com, Jamie Whincup said “He’s only contractually bound to us for next year. But me sitting here right now, of course, I’m trying to run the business as well as I possibly can, and I need the best drivers – but if any driver, engineer, employee came to me and said, ‘Hey, my dream is to go to the other side of the world and do something else’ then I’m not going to stand in their way, am I?”

Do you think Shane Van Gisbergen will make a permanent move to NASCAR?

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