Jenson Button was probably as relieved as anyone to reach the finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas. The 2009 Formula One World Champion described his stock car début as “an emotional roller coaster” that ranged from contact with fellow F1 alumnus Kimi Räikkönen to three overtime restarts that dragged the race longer than usual. By the end of the seventy-five-lap scramble, however, Button could at least walk away as the highest finishing non-Cup regular in eighteenth.
“First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end of it, and I was just like, ‘Everyone, go. I just need to drive and find a rhythm,'” Button remarked. “I’ve never gone through a corner too wide so often, and trying to place my car in the right place, I just got it wrong every time. Normally, if you’re a little bit slow through a corner, nobody tries to overtake you from the outside. Because they’re not going to make it all the way on the next one. But here they do, because they get a wheel inside for the next one, and if you turn in, you turn around.”
The race marked Button’s first foray in a Cup car in a competitive environment, providing him with some track time before piloting one at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. While the Le Mans car is a Chevrolet, he piloted a Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing at COTA in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, who has a relationship with Button’s personal sponsor Mobil 1.
His Le Mans team-mate Jimmie Johnson retired after being caught up in a first-lap crash, while late contact dropped their Le Mans driver coach Jordan Taylor out of the top twenty after being tenth for the final restart.
“The first stint was really bad, it was embarrassing for me,” Button recalled. “I was like, ‘‘’Alright guys, we need to pit, freshen the tyres and I need some air, I need some fresh air.’ I got that. The pace was good, consistency was good. I was really happy and passed a few cars which was nice. We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car because it was just two laps before our window. Pitted, then the next stint was mayhem. We also made a couple of changes that just didn’t work. Big oversteer, went from the car feeling great to really difficult to drive. I also had a massive whack from Kimi, and it fell off after that. The car wasn’t quite right. Every time I turned in, the rear tyres would chatter then immediately to oversteer. It was really difficult, but towards the end, we made some good calls stopping and putting on fresh tyres.”
Ironically, he noted he “enjoyed the last three restarts” as he “got good placement and good overtaking moves from the outside.” Still, his troubles persisted as the Texas heat caused him to nearly stop on the track out of heat exhaustion. The Next Gen Cup car has garnered scrutiny for safety concerns including a lack of ventilation to keep drivers cool in high temperatures, a predicament that also befell its Gen-6 predecessor. For 2023, NASCAR increased the size of the cooling vents on the hoods to better regulate the heat.
“It was so hot, I don’t have a fan in my seat which really didn’t help me too much,” he continued. “It was so hot, I thought I was going to faint in the car, so I stopped twice for a minute. They put ice on me, gave me loads of water, and I went back out. I was so close to getting out of the car because I thought I was going to faint. I must’ve drank eight, nine bottles of water during the race.
“The team kept me calm, and it’s the reason why we got a good result in the end. So, I was happy.”
Button has two more races scheduled after Le Mans at Chicago in July and Indianapolis in August. COTA and Indianapolis have been stops for F1 via the United States Grand Prix, with Button competing at the former from the inaugural edition in 2012 to his final full-time season in 2016 and the latter from 2000 to the last race in 2007.
Räikkönen finished twenty-ninth in his second Cup start. The duo made Sunday’s race the first NASCAR event with multiple F1 World Champions in the field; the two are among five such drivers with a NASCAR start.