Mattias Ekström led seven laps, fought tooth-and-nail with a pair of four-time champions, and looked to be on the way to fulfilling his goal of a top-10 finish in his Sprint Cup debut when he learned a NASCAR lesson: Nice guys finish 21st.
With less than 20 laps to go in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in California, Ekström’s No 83 Red Bull Toyota banged doors with Brad Keselowski at the Turn 6 exit, and rather than come back on the No 12 driver, he gave him a wide berth going into the next corner.
The two-time DTM champion got better drive off corner seven and burst ahead into Turn 8, but Keselowski simply drove into Ekström’s left rear quarter panel, spun him and sped away.
Ekström came to rest on the inside of the course, dusted himself off and went to the pits for some minor repairs. The incident dropped him from 11th to 34th and ruined any chance he had of a top-10 result.
Three laps earlier, veteran Robby Gordon had a similar battle with Keselowski in the exact same spot and his rival ended up eating some dirt. Gordon not only held his ground, but moved toward Keselowski, slammed his door hard, and forced him off the track. That’s how it’s done in NASCAR.
Despite the rude response to his polite driving, Ekström left Sonoma’s 12-turn, 3.2km (two-mile) Infineon Raceway smiling.
“Everything matched my expectations. Everyone raced hard and raced hard from the beginning of the race,” Ekstrom said.
“I cannot say from my heart that I am happy with 21st – it is unfortunate we couldn't get a better result.”
'It felt great to lead my first laps in NASCAR' – Mattias Ekström
Despite missing his goal of a top-10 finish, Ekström more than proved he could run with the top NASCAR racers on a road course. About halfway through the race, he banged fenders with Jeff Gordon in a spirited battle that saw him get hit from behind by the four-time champion and run into David Regan who ended up spinning in Turn 7.
An early pitstop got Ekström from 38th on the grid to the lead on lap 39, where he stayed for the next seven laps as he fought hard to keep eventual winner and another four-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, behind, despite racing on tyres that were 30 laps old while his rival had new boots.
After he pitted for gas and tyres, Ekström emerged 21st and began to climb back up the field until he ran into NASCAR’s problem child with 18 laps to go. When he got back on track following the spin, Ekström passed 13 cars in the last 11 green flag laps to almost make the top-20 in his Cup debut.
“The car felt awesome all race, especially in long runs,” Ekström said. “Everyone at Red Bull and the Red Bull Racing Team have been so great to me for giving me this opportunity. It felt great to lead my first laps in NASCAR.”
Unfortunately for the Red Bull team, Ekström is not available until the early-August road course race in Watkins Glen, in New York State, as he’ll be driving his Audi A4 at the Nürburgring in Germany in DTM.
For now, Reed Sorenson will drive the No 83 this weekend in New Hampshire and the two following races at the Daytona International Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway.
Ekström’s one-off race teammate, No 82 driver Scott Speed, used a similar strategy to climb to third as the No 83 led, but fought a poorly-balanced car throughout the 110-lap race.
A late stop for tyres during the last caution put Speed in 28th with five green laps left to the finish and he made the most of the new rubber, passing 10 cars to deliver his best career road course result in Cup.
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