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Internationally renowned drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button took to the Austin, Texas track in the NASCAR Cup Series race at The Circuit of the Americas.
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday also saw drivers from the NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA Sports Cars like Conor Daly and Jordan Taylor respectively.
The diverse grid included champions from all genres of motorsport, including seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The race, at the 3.4-mile-long track, quickly became one of the most highly anticipated Cup Series races of all time.
After managing to qualify in P22 and P24 in a 39-car field, both Kimi Raikkonen seemed to be holding their own during green flag racing.
The former Finnish F1 driver was previously seen in NASCAR last season at Watkins Glen, driving the same project 91 car for Trackhouse Racing. Meanwhile, the COTA Cup Series race was one of three appearances from Jenson Button this year with Rick Ware Racing and technical support from Stewart-Haas.
Raikkonen and the crew at Trackhouse Racing committed to a three-stop strategy earlier in the race, before switching things up to account for subsequent caution flags.
Jenson Button, on the other hand, was seen struggling for pace in the initial stages of the race. He elected to pit and go long on tires in free air towards the start of the race.
Kimi Raikkonen was also seen running as high as fourth at one point in the race. The 43-year-old pitted early in the final stages of the race, which was followed by a caution flag, allowing him to jump cars going into the pits.
As the race ended in a blur of spun cars and restarts in NASCAR overtime, Raikkonen and Button ultimately ended up finishing in P27 and P18 respectively.
Kimi Raikkonen elaborates on his NASCAR outing at COTA
Kimi Raikkonen's second appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing showed flashes of his excellence behind any kind of race car. The 43-year-old was seen running as high as fourth at certain points during the race before falling back to an eventual P27 finish.
Former driver and 2007 F1 World Champion Raikkonen elaborated on how his day went about and said:
"It was not too bad. The car behaved most of the time pretty nicely. Just got unlucky with few of the incidents that happened and got taken out."
NASCAR goes live from Richmond Raceway in Virginia next weekend for the Toyota Owners 400.
