Now his accent isn’t exactly a drawl and he races those fancy German cars in Europe, but that doesn’t mean Mattias Ekström needs to worry about getting the Ricky Bobby treatment this weekend in Sonoma, USA.
In fact, the NASCAR community is set to welcome the two-time DTM champion to the fold as he makes his Sprint Cup debut in the No 83 Red Bull Toyota in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma’s 12-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon Raceway.
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"I'm excited to have Mattias come to NASCAR to be a part of one of our races," said four-time reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson who competed with Ekström in the Race of Champions.
"I'm not going to say it's going to be easy for him. I've always said I think there's a little bit of a learning curve going from one series to another, but he's certainly a great talent and I think he's going to do a good job. He's such a great person and has such a great personality it's going to be fun having him around."
Another four-time champion, Jeff Gordon, who drives the No 24 DuPont car, agreed: “He's very talented, and I'm excited that he's going to race in a NASCAR race. It may be tough to adjust for just one race, though, especially with the larger field and the double-file restarts.”
No 83 Red Bull driver Brian Vickers, who is out of the car due to blood thinner medication he needs to take to eliminate clots that were discovered in May, agreed that his replacement will see a different world in his Cup debut. So, after an impressive test with the team, Ekström who hails from Sweden got the nod for Sunday's road race in California.
“I am sure he will do well, it’s going to be a big adjustment going to the cars but I think he’s open minded about it. He’s not trying to approach it from an ‘I know better kind of attitude’,” Vickers said.
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“The biggest thing when he gets to Sonoma besides the cars is going to be the race itself. I mean going two-wide into Turn two on a double file restart is going to be a new experience for him when you have guys beating your bumper off, going door-to-door, and getting wheel marks or going four-wide into Turn seven the breaking zone on a restart is going to be nuts and it’s something he’s not used to.. I think those experiences might be a bit more shocking than the car.”
The difference in the two series aside, there’s also no doubt that going from a DTM car, which is essentially the Formula One of the touring car world, and where he only needs to worry about 17 other competitors on track won’t be easy.
That said, fellow DTM driver Bruno Spengler, who drives for rival Mercedes feels the two-time champion will be fine as he gets his feet wet in NASCAR’s top tier.
“I think he definitely has a good chance because he’s a good driver — I don’t know if he can win, but probably top-five or something like that,” Spengler said.
“It’s difficult to say, because he doesn’t have any experience there but I think he has a chance to do well. We saw in his test a few weeks ago that he was quite good, but it’s a completely different car, we have a very light car, lots of aerodynamics, we can brake really late, so I don’t think DTM is a training ground for NASCAR.”
Get the latest from Mattias Ekström and the rest of the team at Red Bull Racing USA’s official site. Check out Mattias’ own website here or go to nascar.com.
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