Eddie Sharp hopes Nelson will do other ARCA races for him

Saturday will mark former Formula One driver Piquet's debut in a stock car on an oval. He's in a Toyota fielded by Eddie Sharp Racing, the same team that fielded Camrys last year for championship challenger Scott Speed, another former F1 driver.

“This deal came to me from Red Horse Racing, which wants to put Nelson in a Camping World [Truck Series entry],” said team owner Eddie Sharp. “But NASCAR wanted him in the ARCA race before it let him run [next weekend] in the truck race. I have a great relationship with Toyota, so we worked together and I agreed to put him in one of my cars down here. Hopefully, he'll do several other ARCA races for us.”

Sharp said he doesn't think it the least bit odd that he'd give one of his cars to a totally green rookie in ARCA's biggest race of the season.

“That's what we do,” he said. “That's our specialty, taking young talent like Scott Speed and Michael McDowell and Nelson, then giving them a chance. We pride ourselves on that, so it seemed a natural fit.

“With his résumé, we welcomed him with open arms. We weren't reluctant at all to give him a ride. When you have it, you have it, and he has it. We've sort of thrown him to the wolves, but Daytona is relatively simple to get around. I'm not at all surprised he's adapted this quickly.”

Piquet called the driving aspect of his debut “a piece of cake,” but admitted he needs to better understand ARCA's rules and race procedures.

“This is my first time and pole is always best, so I don't know if seventh is good or average or what,” he said. “Honestly, the driving part is quite easy; once I get in the car, I'm very comfortable. For me, the difficult part is learning all the other things.”