In his debut NASCAR Cup Series debut, legendary F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen stated he has nothing to lose and only wanted to have joy.

It seems like the mission was successful thus far.

At Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on Saturday, Raikkonen successfully completed his first Cup Series practise and qualifying practices without any on-track problems.

Raikkonen demonstrated strong race speed despite not having a chance to win the pole; his main grumble was that he wished he had had more track time.

“I wish there had been more laps. It just felt like there is a lot of potential,” he said. “But you know, I’m not sure which line to take and just not enough laps to put everything together. But yeah, it was fun.

“Quite a lot of what I sort of expected after the simulator. Obviously, there’s always a difference but the fine data is never shown in the simulator. At least I knew the track, but I think, yeah, I needed to be a bit more better in a few places.

“Some places I thought I was pretty okay. But you know, it’s good. I didn’t expect anything and we are somewhat in the middle, so it’s okay.”

Raikkonen will compete in his first racing competition since his retirement from Formula One last December, when he made his last appearance for Alfa Romeo at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Finn’s participation in a Cup Series race is a part of Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 effort, which aims to broaden NASCAR’s appeal by bringing skilled drivers from other grand prix to the NASCAR stable.

Raikkonen, 42, moved his family members to the United States for many weeks to fully immerse himself in the experience in order to get ready for this weekend’s race.

He has raced in iRacing competitions, practised pit stops at the shop, and most lately competed in his “Select Driver Orientation Test” at Virginia International Raceway during that period.

Raikkonen was questioned regarding the reasons for his decision to potentially “fail” by switching to a new type of racing.

“I don’t see any risk. Why not?” he said. “What do I have to lose? That I‘ve done bad in a NASCAR race or bad in any race? I don’t care. I do it for myself. Good or bad result, it could happen even if I did 20 races. They all could be bad for many different reasons.

“I don’t see anything negative. I think it’s great. I’m sure there’s a lot of drivers that would like to have a chance and try, but it’s not very easy.

“So, maybe it opens some doors that in future there’s more chance to try to get more Europeans.”

After practise and qualifying on Saturday, Raikkonen stated that his primary goal in getting ready for the race on Sunday was to familiarise himself with NASCAR regulations.

“You know, not making any silly mistakes on that side, hopefully, and we’ll see what we can do with the car,” he said. “We had a little bit of an idea from where we started and where we went and maybe somewhere halfway is better, and you know, we try to improve.

“I want to have fun, but also do as well as we can.”

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