LE MANS, France — Kamui Kobayashi, one of the best sports car drivers in the world, will make his NASCAR debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Toyota in August.
Kobayashi will drive for 23XI Racing, the team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan that opened this season by fielding a Toyota for action sports star Travis Pastrana in the Daytona 500.
Kobayashi will become only the second Japanese driver to race in NASCAR’s top Cup Series and only the fifth to race in one of NASCAR’s top three national series. He will be the first Japanese driver to race in the Cup Series in a Toyota, which entered NASCAR’s top series in 2007.
“It’s my dream, actually,” Kobayashi told The Associated Press. “It’s such a big sport in the United States, and racing in Europe, I never had the chance or opportunity to race NASCAR. I think the opportunity will be challenging for myself because it is such a different category.
“But if I have success, I think it will make more opportunities for Japanese drivers. Toyota has been in NASCAR a long time, but there has never been any Japanese drivers for Toyota. That’s also why I say I appreciate this opportunity for myself.”
Wednesday’s announcement had several top NASCAR executives in attendance, including chairman Jim France, as Toyota found Le Mans to be the perfect backdrop to spotlight the one-race deal.
Kobayashi will drive the No. 67 Toyota in the Aug. 13 race.
“It’s truly an honor to have Kamui want to participate in our NASCAR Cup Series program, and we’re thrilled that we could work with our partners at 23XI Racing to give him a competitive Camry TRD for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course event,” said David Wilson, president of TRD, U.S.A. “Kamui shares the passion for motorsports that all of us at Toyota and TRD, U.S.A. live every day, so it will be exciting to show him our NASCAR program with him behind the wheel of one of our TRD Camrys.”
Kobayashi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota in 2021 and hasn’t finished lower than third since 2018. He has six podium finishes in eight appearances in the iconic endurance race, and his two-car Toyota Gazoo team has won the overall race title the past five years.
In 2021, after winning Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship title driving for Toyota Gazoo, Kobayashi was named team principal. Toyota Gazoo has two cars entered in the race that begins Saturday as Kobayashi oversees the team’s attempt to win a sixth consecutive title.
Kobayashi started his racing career karting in Japan but was discovered by Toyota while racing in Europe. He was named one of Toyota’s reserve Formula One drivers and made his debut during the 2009 season at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He raced in F1 through 2014 with one podium finish in 75 career starts.
Following his F1 career, Kobayashi returned to Japan and switched to the Supra Formula Series, a class he still actively competes in. He has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona twice and was the anchor on an IMSA endurance sports car team in the United States for two seasons that was formed by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
Kobayashi loves racing in the United States, but IMSA’s adoption of new regulations to make its top class eligible to compete at Le Mans created a conflict of interest between Kobayashi’s Toyota responsibilities and continuing to race in IMSA, where Toyota is not represented in the top class. Toyota does field a Lexus in a lower IMSA division, and Kobayashi raced for Vasser Sullivan Racing last June in Canada to get a feel for the GT car.
Many consider NASCAR’s Next Gen car to be very similar to the GT Lexus sports car that Kobayashi drove in IMSA last year, and that is his closest experience to driving a stock car. He will be permitted to test with 23XI at a small track in Virginia ahead of the Indianapolis race and expects some time on the simulator.
Either way, he isn’t worried about seat time.
“I think I’m a guy who doesn’t need much practice, to be honest,” the 36-year-old Kobayashi told the AP. “I think once we jump in the car, we will be OK in a couple of laps. So I’m not really concerned about form.”
Toyota had initially felt jilted when NASCAR blindsided the industry last year by announcing it would bring its new Next Gen car to centenary Le Mans in a specialized category that showcases innovation, but the project was with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports. Toyota was the first rival NASCAR manufacturer to complain, and NASCAR has since tried to include all its partners in this weekend’s celebration and France signed off on holding the Kobayashi announcement at Le Mans.