NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

No, he’s not the first driver to make the move from the Formula 1 World Championship to the NASCAR ranks, not even the first in the last decade, as Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Speed will attest. He certainly wouldn’t be the first son of a racing legend to go on to a successful career in NASCAR.

But if his career goes according to plan, the 24-year-old from Brasilia, Brazil, would be the first Brazilian to win races and championships in NASCAR.

“Clearly, I’m doing this because I want to be successful over here,” says Piquet of his dramatic career change after two years of Formula 1 competition. “No Brazilians have done this before. I thought it was the most difficult series to do after F1, so I decided to do this and I want to conquer it.”

Whether Piquet will ultimately conquer it won’t be answered for quite some time as he’s just getting started.

The son of three-time F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut two weeks ago in the 2010 season opener at Daytona driving the No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra. Piquet’s ride in the Truck race at Daytona came just one week after he made his first American stock car start aboard the No. 6 Eddie Sharp Racing Toyota in the 2010 ARCA season opener, also at Daytona.

Finding speed in the ARCA car wasn’t a problem for Piquet, as he qualified seventh for the race. But, like the famous line from “Days of Thunder,” Piquet quickly learned what it was like to “run in a crowd.” He wound up finishing 27th in his ARCA debut and drew a fair amount of attention when he tangled with Danica Patrick, who was making her own stock car debut in the ARCA race with much more fanfare.

“After 10 laps, I was beginning to get the hang of it,” Piquet explains. “Before that, I had no clue how it would be to run with somebody. Before the race, I didn’t do any drafting. It was the first time running close. It was very good.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to really get 100 percent comfortable, but the process of learning in the beginning is going to be very quick. There’s a lot to learn still.”

The ARCA experience proved fruitful for Piquet, as he had a much better idea what to expect when he went Truck racing at Daytona. While he qualified the No. 1 Red Horse Tundra 22nd, he charged forward from the drop of the green flag in a race where many more experienced Truck Series racers encountered problems early and often.

Piquet moved into the top 10 before the race’s halfway point and ran with the leaders throughout the second half en route to a sixth-place result. His Red Horse Racing teammate, Timothy Peters, took the victory in the No. 17 K&N Toyota.

“The (truck) was great all through the race and the team put me in a position to be racing side-by-side at the front, which was great for my first race at Daytona,” said Piquet after the race. “I knew it would be tough, but never this much. I learned a lot. NASCAR is very intense racing.

“Driving for three hours is very demanding on the drivers and the equipment and I think the bodywork on my truck showed how NASCAR is a contact sport! It was a battle to stay out of trouble but I’m really happy to have ended the race in a strong position. I’d like to take this opportunity to say sorry to any of the drivers if I made any mistakes, but this was my first race and I’m learning. It’s been a long time since I had this much fun and I can’t wait for the next one!”

When and where the next one will be for Piquet still remains to be seen, although a solid run at Daytona certainly has to help. The good news for the young Brazilian is that there are a number of good stock car racing development series to choose from, including the Truck Series, the NASCAR K&N Pro East and West Series (formerly known as Camping World East and West) and ARCA, among others.

At Daytona, Piquet still wasn’t sure which route he was going to take.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “It depends on how quickly I’m going to learn things, but I want to do as many races as I can in all kinds of series just to quickly get the hang of it. Whatever comes around, I’m going to do it.”

It’s obviously quite an undertaking for Piquet, as his entire racing career was spent in either go-karts or open-wheel racecars on road circuits before his first truck test with Red Horse Racing at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida last fall. Surprisingly, however, Piquet feels that the transition may not be as difficult as one might imagine.

“It’s nothing difficult,” he says. “I think the driving of these trucks is easier than anything I’ve done before. The difficult thing is really getting comfortable in driving close together with everybody, making the right moves and not hitting anybody, and being able to get the most out of your spotter and being able to trust him 100 percent. Not only trust him, but being able to use him and being able to go wherever you want in a safe way without having any doubts.”

Piquet is similar to many of his contemporaries that have attempted the transition to stock cars in his ability to make the car or truck go fast. For one lap or a few laps, every one of them can go as fast or faster than even the best drivers out there.

The secret is learning how to stay on top of the many changes that the racetracks and the cars or trucks go through over the course of a race. Piquet seems to recognize that, and knows it will just take time and experience to become successful.

“What I have to do is get used to dealing with the different kinds of things here,” he says. “Driving the car is going to be the tough part. Doing well and being comfortable in these kinds of situations over here in the race, that’s going to be the toughest part. The culture itself, that’s something easy. I’ve been all over the world already and been driving all kinds of different cars for different teams, so this is not much different. You just need to adapt yourself a little bit more.”

Time will tell if Piquet manages to adapt into a top contender in NASCAR. But if the first steps were any indication, he’s certainly off to a promising start.