Could we see a road course ringer win at COTA this weekend? Denny Hamlin has high praise for Kamui Kobayashi ahead of Sunday’s race. The 23XI Racing co-owner is high on his Kobayashi in his second NASCAR start.
Kamui Kobayashi is going to drive a third car for 23XI Racing this weekend. Kobayashi drove the No. 67 car for 23XI at the Indy Road Course last season. It was a tough go, qualifying P28 and finishing P33.
This weekend, Kobayashi is piloting the No. 50 car for 23XI. It is a nod to the 50th anniversary of Mobil 1, which is sponsoring the effort. His boss, Denny Hamlin, seems to believe this effort will go much better than his last.
Why is that? Well, he’s beating everyone on the simulator, including 2023 COTA winner, Tyler Reddick.
“In the sim he’s just so fast. I mean, he’s faster than Tyler, Tyler’s faster than me, and Tyler is faster than everyone when it comes to driving on the simulator on the road course, and he backs it up on the race track,” Hamlin said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But Kamui has been faster, so far, than him this week. So, I really think that he’s got the talent, we know he can do it.
“He races all kinds of different cars on all kinds of different road courses. He had a bit of a tough go at it the first time at Indy, kind of got bounced around there a little bit because he didn’t qualify well. But hopefully, it turns out to a better result this time. We’re really optimistic with Mobil 1 on the car for their 50th anniversary. Certainly, there is a lot of optimism that Kamui can go out there in the third car and make some noise.”
Kamui Kobayashi is a former F1 driver who has a podium finish to his name. However, it is in the FIA World Endurance Championship where Kobayashi has excelled the most. He is a two-time world champion with 16 wins, 19 poles, and 10 fastest laps earned in 54 starts. Kobayashi also won the LMH class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021.
When Kobayashi took to the track at Indianapolis, he was new. He had never raced the track and his qualifying performance lacked speed because of it. At COTA, Kobayashi knows his way around, he’s been here before.
So far, according to Denny Hamlin, the Japanese driver is taking to the COTA simulator very well. These sims are what NASCAR drivers use now to get ready for races with a lack of practice sessions.
If Kamui Kobayashi is outpacing Tyler Reddick in these sim sessions, then I think he has a great Sunday ahead of him. Restarts have given these ringers trouble in the last couple of years. The beating and banging in NASCAR is unlike any other series. Let’s see if Kobayashi can adapt quickly enough to contend for a top-10 finish because I think he very well might.
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