Nascar’s hottest property interested in Toyota trial

Meet Kyle Busch, the 23-year-old star of Nascar. There he is, standing atop his Toyota after a race win at the Darlington Speedway earlier this month. Being a classic American showman, he does that after each victory. But then he was born in Las Vegas - it figures.

Busch is a great stock-car driver, but is he talented enough to make the switch to F1? It could happen, whether he’s good enough or not. The Las Vegan has revealed that he will test drive Toyota’s F1 car at the end of 2008: “We’re working on a test session right now at the end of November or beginning of December sometime - going to Japan and doing a little exhibition sort of deal and see what it’s like,” he said.

It’s been a long time since F1 had a truly successful American driver, and while Busch certainly doesn’t lack for confidence, there is a huge difference between stock-car racing on oval circuits, where cars can bump each other, and open-wheeled racing on tracks with real corners.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who currently races in Nascar but has also sampled F1 for several seasons, is very sceptical about Busch’s prospects:

“They [an F1 team] give you a day or a half-a-day, you’re not going to do anything and nobody is going to look at you,” Montoya said. “Can he [Busch] do it for talent? Maybe. But you have to remember, all his life he has done ovals… He’s not a road course expert. Yeah, he won in Mexico, but he’s not a road course expert.”

Do you think Busch could ever succeed in F1?