Grosjean Open To Nascar Offer.

[Emmcee 0]

Sounds like it was in the contract when he signed by the sounds of it. Just where and when will he make his debut?

http://m.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/339140/grosjean-open-to-nascar-outing/

[Massa 0]

Grosjean is saying Sonoma (a road course) in June. He doesn't want to make his debut on an oval, which is understandable—the transition to the vastly different kind of car is so massive that also having to learn the mindset of oval racing would make it overwhelming. Outside of endurance racing, I don't think anything is more strategically and mentally demanding on a driver than 500- or 600-mile stock car races. The most successful drivers in NASCAR are the ones who remind me most of Michael Schumacher and are partnered with crew chiefs who remind me most of Ross Brawn. Even the open-wheel oval races of the same length, like the Indy 500, are nowhere near the strategic challenge because you just run until the fuel runs out; then, you pit. And the driver doesn't have to do any work to make the right fuel mileage for the strategy because you just dial the boost up or down depending on whether you want to run lean or rich. Not so in stock cars, where drivers have to avoid temptation to engage in battles when they need to make extra laps, and where drivers have to avoid being impeded by cars on alternate strategies on the stints where they really have to be hauling. Add to it that they usually pit at every safety car, and on long green runs, tire wear can dictate the pit stops before fuel does (rewarding drivers who can make a set last the entire fuel run). And then in stock cars, you also sometimes take no tires or just two tires, and often have to be very opportunistic on restarts. Finally, the actually driving of ovals demands a very different approach because, while it is harder to get it wrong on an oval than on a circuit, the mistakes you do make you pay for a lot more on ovals (all about momentum—an error on a circuit will cost you time in the sector, but an error on an oval can mess you up for multiple laps as your car won't go back into the normal line until you get the requisite speed back).

The SparkNotes of that is he's doing the right thing.

It'll be fun. Hülkenberg's run at Le Mans, Grosjean in a stock car . . . stuff like that is good to see.

[Emmcee 0]

Totally agree, people don't give NASCAR enough credit, I couldn't stand it 5 years ago, complaining like everyone else about how they can only turn left. But I actually sat down a few years back and actually watched the entire Daytona 500 and I was on the edge of my seat the entire race. The strategy involved, changing just two tyres at a stop, bump and go,

Should you put under caution or start out? all these created an element of racing I've never experience and I urge people to actually sit down and follow a race, they will be plesently suprised.