By Pablo Elizalde
Tuesday, January 12th 2010, 14:48 GMT
Nelsinho Piquet has revealed he will be racing in NASCAR this year after giving up on landing a Formula 1 drive.
The Brazilian, who has been involved in the 'crashgate' affair after leaving the Renault F1 team during the 2009 season, did not confirm in which series he will race this year, but made it clear it will be in NASCAR, meaning it will be either the Truck, the Nationwide or the Sprint Cup series.
Piquet tested a NASCAR truck from the Red Horse Racing team in October last year and is expected to test again this month.
"I have spent the last few months carefully evaluating my options for this year," Piquet wrote on his website. "I had to choose a path and it was a difficult decision to make.
"Being successful in Formula 1 was always my goal but I have learnt that happiness is just as important as ambition and after my first 18 months in F1 did not go as planned I have decided to focus on something different and have chosen to take a route in America.
"NASCAR is hugely challenging and nobody has ever come in as an outsider before and gone on to win it - it will be the ultimate challenge.
"I will let you know more details on the exact programme soon."
He added: "This will be an awesome new challenge for me, and a healthy one. I have always been open to new challenges and I will be putting everything I have into this. I have found a good group of people that are really willing to help me in my career and I am grateful that they are there for me.
"I think it will be a positive environment and a good life experience. I am sure this year is going to be fantastic and I am very excited at the prospect of my future.I will miss Europe and all the friends I have there but I will always have my successes there to be proud of.
"I am sure I'll still do some racing in Europe as I have a lot of ambitions in my life, one of which has always been to win the Le Mans 24 Hours."
jeje
