Yahoo Autos Big blend of backgrounds: Garage 56 aces, other new faces flock to COTA
AUSTIN, Texas — When former Formula 1 champion Kimi Räikkönen signed on for a NASCAR Cup Series one-off last year, his addition to the field stoked a bit of extra wattage for Watkins Glen and a level of added intrigue from other motorsports realms. He certainly wasn’t the first to bring international flair to the stateside stock-car crowd, but his appearance wound up opening some doors.
Räikkönen is back this weekend at the Circuit of The Americas as part of one of the strongest fields of extracurricular racers in the Cup Series in recent memory. He’ll be mixing it up with another F1 champ in Jenson Button, a sports-car ace in Jordan Taylor, IndyCar regular Conor Daly and a returning seven-time Cup Series champ, the moonlighting Jimmie Johnson, when Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) goes green.
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Button, Johnson and Taylor form three-quarters of the driver lineup — along with German sports-car vet Mike Rockenfeller — for the Garage 56 effort that will tackle the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. This weekend, the trio are all in close proximity in separate stalls in the COTA paddock.
“It‘s going to be fun. We’ve been talking trash like crazy on text so it‘s been a lot of fun already,” Johnson said with a laugh. “If we could just have (Rockenfeller) out there somewhere, it would be nice having all four of us bouncing around.”
Taylor, the 31-year-old IMSA champion, managed the best starting spot of the group, putting the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet fourth on the starting lineup for his Cup Series debut. Taylor was actually in COTA for Garage 56 testing when he got the call from Hendrick’s Jeff Gordon, asking him to sub in for the injured Chase Elliott. He jumped at the chance and has so far made good on the opportunity.
“I mean, it’s a relief, to be honest,” said Taylor, who was also a respectable 10th in Friday’s practice. “I think coming in here, everyone knows it’s a winning car, a winning team. So if the car’s not out front, there’s one different variable, which is the driver that’s not doing the job. So I knew there’s a lot of eyes on it to perform, and I’m just glad to make everyone proud, to be honest.”
Button’s Cup Series debut also comes Sunday, marking his first race in nearly three years as his post-retirement tour continues. The 2009 F1 world champ placed the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford in the 24th spot — just one row behind Räikkönen in 22nd.
Button came to NASCAR at the urging of Johnson, and Sunday’s start is scheduled to be the first of three for the 43-year-old driver this season.
