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TRUCKS: Piquet Jr, Meira To Test For Red Horse
Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Vitor Meira will test a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing...
SPEED Staff  |  Posted October 05, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Brazilian’s Vitor Meira (Left) and Nelson Piquet, Jr. (Right) will test NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundras for Red Horse Racing at Rockingham Speedway's short track. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Brazilian’s Nelson Piquet, Jr. (Left) and Vitor Meira (Right) will test a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Brazilian natives, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Vitor Meira will test a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra for Red Horse Racing on Monday, October 12th.

The one-day test will be the first time behind the wheel of a NASCAR style racecar for Formula One driver, Piquet, and IndyCar Series driver, Meira.

Red Horse Racing will bring a pair of Toyota Tundra’s for Piquet and Meira to test on the short track at Rockingham Speedway. Red Horse Drivers Timothy Peters and TJ Bell will be on hand to help the open wheel drivers acclimate to their first stock car test.

Prior to his Formula One career, Piquet became the youngest driver ever to win the British F3 title and finished second in the GP2 Series, Formula One’s feeder series, in his second year. The Renault F1 team eventually signed him, but dismissed the 23-year-old Piquet earlier this season for underperformance. Shortly after details emerged that Piquet had been ordered to cause a crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, allowing his teammate Fernando Alonso to win, he was cleared of any wrongdoing in exchange for his testimony.

Vitor Meira started his racing career in the South American Formula 3 Series where he earned eight victories en route to winning the championship in 2000. That same year he tested an IndyCar Series car for Panther Racing at Texas Motor Speedway. By 2003, Meira was competing full time in the Series and has raced for Team Menard, Rahal Letterman and Panther Racing. He has on overall record of 50 top-10 finishes including two second place runs in the Indy 500 in 2005 and 2008.

In this years Indy 500 racing for AJ Foyt, Meira was involved in a hard crash that left him with two broken vertebrae and out for the entire 2009 season.

Both drivers plan to use the test to evaluate a future career among the NASCAR ranks. Pacific Mobile will be a sponsor of the test as they are also evaluating NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Racing.

“We look forward to helping Vitor Meira and Nelson Piquet make the transition into NASCAR,” said Red Horse Racing Owner, Tom DeLoach. “It’s not an easy thing to do to go from an open wheel background to racing stock cars but they are both immensely talented and have the ability to be successful in any series they chose to race in.”



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