Kobayashi Set For NASCAR Debut
On Wednesday at the Le Mans Manufacturer Village, it was announced that Toyota Gazoo Racing driver and Team Principal, Kamui Kobayashi, will make his first start in the NASCAR Cup Series this August at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Kobayashi will drive the #67 Toyota Camry in this year’s 200 Miles at the Brickyard on 13 August – part of a double-header weekend shared between NASCAR and the IndyCar Series, with both series racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Kobayashi’s #67 Toyota is entered by 23XI Racing, the ambitious upstart team co-founded by basketball legend Michael Jordan and perennial NASCAR Cup Series championship challenger Denny Hamlin.
The 36-year-old driver boasts an impressive racing resume, headlined by the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans overall victory, two overall wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and two FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship titles. He raced for parts of five seasons in Formula One from 2009 to 2014, and became the third Japanese driver to stand on a Formula One podium in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.
Kobayashi is also a race winner in the SUPER GT Series in Japan, and also competes full-time in the Japanese Super Formula Championship alongside his commitments to Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Endurance Championship.
He follows in the footsteps of Jenson Button, Mike Rockenfeller, Jordan Taylor, Jacques Villeneuve, Kimi Raikkonen, and Daniil Kvyat who have come to compete in NASCAR from endurance racing and Formula One backgrounds.
It will mark the first time in 20 years that a Japanese national will start a NASCAR Cup Series race. The last to do so was Hideo Fukuyama, who made four starts in the Cup Series between 2002 and 2003 – and who, like Kobayashi, was also a successful driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a GT class win in 2000.
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