THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain — Former Renault Formula One driver Nelson Piquet Jr., who last year triggered a scandal by revealing he deliberately crashed his car to aid a teammate, is moving to NASCAR in 2010.
Piquet Jr. said Tuesday after his "first 18 months in F1 did not go as planned I have decided to focus on something different and have chosen to take a route in America."
"I have spent the last few months carefully evaluating my options for this year," Piquet Jr. said. "NASCAR is hugely challenging and nobody has ever come in as an outsider before and gone on to win it — it will be the ultimate challenge.
"This will be an awesome new challenge for me, and a healthy one."
Piquet Jr. hasn’t raced since being fired by Renault in August after 28-races in which his best finish was second at the 2008 German GP. He retired from 11 of those and constantly accused the French team of favouring teammate and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
The 24-year-old Brazilian driver, who is the son of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet, is best remembered for deliberately crashing his car at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix on team orders to help Alonso win the race.