As the likes of Kimi Räikkönen, Tony Kanaan, and Daniil Kvyat respectively prepare for their NASCAR Cup Series début or are in talks about racing in NASCAR, Marco Andretti is hoping to be the next to join this “new wave open-wheel invasion”. The longtime NTT IndyCar Series driver has entertained the possibility of racing in the Xfinity Series since 2021, but revealed in an interview with Frontstretch‘s Michael Massie on Saturday that he is “talking to some people” about it.
“If I can hang with these guys, maybe I can hang in Xfinity,” he remarked after finishing runner-up in the Superstar Racing Experience event at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
Since ending his full-time IndyCar career after 2020, Andretti has been eyeing more closed-wheel opportunities. He ran the full inaugural SRX campaign, a short track championship featuring many former NASCAR drivers like series founder Tony Stewart, and finished fourth in points with a win at Slinger. Four races into the 2022 slate, he is second in the standings behind 2000 Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte with back-to-back runner-up finishes at Stafford and Nashville.
During a 2021 SRX press conference, he disclosed he is nearing a deal to race in the Xfinity Series on a limited scale, though he would make zero starts that year. An October 2021 report by Burnout Sports’ Tony Donahue revealed rumours of Stewart considering fielding a part-time Xfinity entry for Andretti under his Stewart-Haas Racing banner in 2022.
Should Andretti find a ride, he joins a plethora of names from open-wheel racing to begin dabbling in stock cars. Besides the aforementioned, former Indianapolis 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve ran the Daytona 500 in February while ex-Formula One driver Tarso Marques is aiming to run the Watkins Glen Cup race alongside Räikkönen. Hélio Castroneves, who raced against Andretti and Kanaan in IndyCar and SRX, is hoping to run the Daytona 500 in 2023. Such a trend was especially prominent in late 1990s to 2000s as those like Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and Sam Hornish Jr. ditched IndyCar and F1 in favour of NASCAR.