Nelson Piquet Jr. and Narain Karthikeyan are paying their dues in NASCAR’s truck series.
Both Nelson Piquet Jr, of Brazil, and Narain Karthikeyan, of India, were satisfied by their progress at Texas Motor Speedway.
Piquet Jr., son of triple F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet, started 14th and worked his way up to fourth before pitting on the final caution but clawed his way back to finish eighth. His second top-ten finish in three races.
“It was another race where I learned a lot really. It was such a long race, it’s difficult to say. The truck was good to start then in the middle part of the race, I struggled. I was loose, tight -- we were struggling during pit stops trying to fix the truck
At the end we had a really good run, a really good chance to finish in the top three and one of the green trucks, he went in the grass and it covered the front of my truck and the water temperature went all the way up. I had to pit and I had take it off the fan and we lost a few places. That was it. I lost the race over there,” Piquet Jr. said.
Karthikeyan qualified 19th, avoided trouble near the race’s end and finished 11th, his best finish in four races.
"We did a good job today considering it is basically our second race on a 1.5 mile oval. It is my best finish so far, but more than that, I gained much more confidence driving the truck and racing with the fast group of cars,” Karthikeyan told the Press Trust of India.
He admitted he’s still learning the heavy stock car based trucks. "I struggled a little bit with the restarts because I couldn't get up to speed as fast as I wanted, but after a few green flag laps I could get in a rhythm and was faster than a handful of trucks in front of me," he added.
Both Nelson Piquet Jr, of Brazil, and Narain Karthikeyan, of India, were satisfied by their progress at Texas Motor Speedway.
Piquet Jr., son of triple F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet, started 14th and worked his way up to fourth before pitting on the final caution but clawed his way back to finish eighth. His second top-ten finish in three races.
“It was another race where I learned a lot really. It was such a long race, it’s difficult to say. The truck was good to start then in the middle part of the race, I struggled. I was loose, tight -- we were struggling during pit stops trying to fix the truck
At the end we had a really good run, a really good chance to finish in the top three and one of the green trucks, he went in the grass and it covered the front of my truck and the water temperature went all the way up. I had to pit and I had take it off the fan and we lost a few places. That was it. I lost the race over there,” Piquet Jr. said.
Karthikeyan qualified 19th, avoided trouble near the race’s end and finished 11th, his best finish in four races.
"We did a good job today considering it is basically our second race on a 1.5 mile oval. It is my best finish so far, but more than that, I gained much more confidence driving the truck and racing with the fast group of cars,” Karthikeyan told the Press Trust of India.
He admitted he’s still learning the heavy stock car based trucks. "I struggled a little bit with the restarts because I couldn't get up to speed as fast as I wanted, but after a few green flag laps I could get in a rhythm and was faster than a handful of trucks in front of me," he added.
