Stewart-Haas working on NASCAR debut for Grosjean

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Stewart-Haas is working on a plan to give Romain Grosjean his debut racing in NASCAR as early as this summer.

Grosjean has previously stated he would like to race in NASCAR, with F1 team owner Gene Haas also co-ower of Stewart-Haas racing. Haas F1's chief operating officer Joe Custer has confirmed the aim is to run Grosjean in one of the Stewart-Haas cars as early as this year if possible, with the NASCAR schedule including a race at Watkins Glen during the F1 summer break.

"It's definitely on our wish list," Custer told Motorsport.com. "We just have to make it work - whether it be this year, next year, whenever that is. We're not sure.

"There would be nothing more interesting than a current F1 driver having a good run in a NASCAR race. I thing that would be good for everybody. It would drive more interest."

While Custer admits there are some restrictions also imposed by Grosjean, he says the focus is on making sure such an undertaking will be successful.

"He's made it clear that he wouldn't want his debut to be on an oval - where he's never done it before. There's so much going on. We have to figure out the testing opportunities and all the things that would make it a success.

"That would be our first approach - it is to evaluate what would make this a successful event with sponsors and get everything else aligned right. That takes time."

Grosjean would be allowed to run as a rookie, but would need NASCAR approval to take part in a race, with Custer admitting it has yet to be decided how the team would deal with the extra entry.

"I'm not sure when it would happen, but it's on our list. We would like to have him test. He would be a rookie. I don't think there are any barriers to any of this. We just have to figure it out and get it on the schedule.

"Then, five cars or four cars? Or does he work with another team in the garage. All of that. We have to work out the details and have enough time to make it happen."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.