Ren said he was impressed with how well Raikkonen ran over the course of the Charlotte races.

“I think Kimi did a great job,” he said. “Everybody needs to understand that Charlotte is a very difficult racetrack to race. There are very good, famous race car drivers that have never won at Charlotte — this is a very difficult racetrack.

Raikkonen said he struggled with the handling of his Sprint car at Charlotte. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“For him to come here and finish on the lead lap 15th in the truck, come here and qualify good in the Nationwide car, great in the second practice — he did a great job. He’s got really good car control, he’s got good feedback for having never been in these types of vehicles — enough feedback to help me realize what it’s doing. I call it a success.”

Asked if the organization could be involved in fielding a future NASCAR Sprint Cup car for Raikkonen, Ren said it is up to the driver. Raikkonen did test a Robby Gordon Motorsports Cup car earlier this week at Virginia International Raceway.

“We would have to do that with a Cup team,” he said. “I’m just going to tell you right now, the Cup teams that can go do that are very, very limited. The front-running Cup teams, we cannot get a car from one of those teams.

Would he like to work with Raikkonen again?

“I think it’s really up to him to decide if he wants to come do this again,” Ren said. “Hopefully we did our part, and it was a pleasant experience for him. He thanked everybody for doing what we did. I don’t know, I feel good about it.”

Would Raikkonen like to return to NASCAR?

“My plan was always to do these first two races and then I have to go back to Europe and do some Rally (races) and then we will see what happens,” he said.

Whitt’s first run at the 1.5-mile track looked like a success as well, especially since he turned in the top-15 run.

After the race, Whitt talked with his crew in his pit box for a few minutes before walking back to the garage. Competitors walking past him wished him well on all future runs. He’s currently atop the Truck series standings, but has clearly appreciated the opportunity to drive the Pastrana-Waltrip Racing entry.

While he admitted that the car didn’t handle as well as he had hoped, he didn’t find real differences in racing in the two series.

“It wasn’t a whole lot different than (racing) the trucks,” he said. “The race was real similar, the way they could run the line and the high line and stuff. We just never really had the car.”

Whitt said he didn’t struggle with the transition to the car, as he has been racing in the Camping World Truck Series full time this year. Despite the added length of a Nationwide race, and the heated conditions of Saturday’s race, he seemed content with how he handled the race.

“I’m fairly comfortable,” Whitt said of his race. “Obviously I don’t have 300 starts so it’s tougher for me just to get acclimated to all the changes and everything, but today really didn’t have anything to do with that. We just missed the setup.”

So what does his future hold? Whitt hopes more of the same.

“Hopefully more Nationwide starts,” he said. “I’d like to climb the ladder, but hopefully win that Truck championship.”