Nelson Piquet: Starting over in the USA

Nelson Piquet Jr’s stock car racing career will kick off at Daytona on Saturday when he takes part in the ARCA event, the support race that traditionally serves as a sort of baptism of fire for those making the transition from road racing.

Even in the insular world of NASCAR the arrival of a contemporary F1 driver – and son of a triple World Champion – is something of an attention grabber, but Nelson will be happy to stay out of the spotlight since his debut coincides with that of Danica Patrick, and the IRL star has naturally been hogging the headlines all week.

Qualifying doesn’t mean much on ovals but Nelson will start a respectable seventh for this race, and judging by his Twitter messages over the last 24 hours, he’s having a great time.

When I spoke to him last week for an Autosport feature there was no doubt in his mind that he’d made the right decision.

“In America they were offering a lot of good things,” he said. “I just decided to take this path. I started to balance a lot of things, career decisions, challenge, life quality, all kinds of things. It was a tough choice, but I think it was an interesting choice in the end.”

He’s more than happy to be starting on the lower rungs of the ladder – ARCA and the truck series – so that he can learn the ropes.

“That’s why I’m taking it easy, and not stepping straight into Nationwide or Sprint Cup. I’m going into trucks and trying to learn as much as I can, starting from the Formula Ford or F3 equivalent. I could have gone straight to Cup if I’d wanted, but the risk that I would burn myself there would be very big. If I’m going to do it, I want to do it properly, really take my time and have a long term thing over here.”

Intriguingly he said he’d been in contact with Stefan GP as recently as early January, before deciding it was not worth pursuing. Since I talked to him we’ve all learned that the project is rather more advanced that we (or perhaps Nelson) thought, and Kazuki Nakajima and Ralf Schumacher are being lined up to drive. Nelson just might have missed out on his only chance to resume his F1 career, but for now, he has no regrets.

“If I’m really happy here, I won’t even look back. So far everything’s going well. It can be such a cruel world sometimes, F1. Obviously if you make the right step and move on in the right way, everything’s OK. But there’s maybe half a dozen drivers that are really happy, half a dozen that are satisfied, and another six that are miserable!

“I prefer to try something new, and jeez, if it works, I’m going to be much happier. That’s all I’m going to want, to be happy in something I’m doing.”

It remains to be seen how he will fare in the USA. On the face of it he’s one of the last F1 drivers you’d expect to fit in there – brought up in Monaco, silver spoon in his mouth, all that sort of thing – but once you get to know him he’s a decent guy, and his reputation for arrogance is a little unjustified.

You could also argue that the unfortunate event that has completely trashed his reputation in Europe will not have the same effect in the USA. The F1 driver who crashed to bring out the pace car and help his team mate win – right on!

There’s every chance that he’ll get a taste of a Daytona wall, if not in the ARCA event, then when he makes the move to the rough and tumble of the truck series next weekend. He knows it’s going to happen, and he knows too that some of his rivals will be happy to help him with his education. “I’d rather it happened sooner than later,” he jokes…

For a full interview with Nelson, check out the February 4 issue of Autosport.

Nelson Piquet has qualified seventh for his stock car debut