Daniil Kvyat making NASCAR Xfinity debut at Charlotte Roval

With two NASCAR Cup Series starts under his belt, Daniil Kvyat is now looking to dip down into the lower tiers as he will race in the Xfinity Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on 8 October. He will drive the #26 Toyota Supra GR for Sam Hunt Racing.

A longtime NASCAR enthusiast, Kvyat made his Cup début in July at Indianapolis for Team Hezeberg and later ran the Watkins Glen race, but finished thirty-sixth in both as he struggled in an underperforming vehicle. As a result, Sam Hunt Racing will provide his best NASCAR equipment to date as the #26 is nineteenth in owner points with four top tens and two top fives.

An ex-Formula One driver, Kvyat is the first Russian to compete in an American NASCAR series. Fallout from his country’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in his FIA World Endurance Championship team G-Drive Racing withdrawing their entry for the 2022 season, which gave him an opportunity to head to America and race there; while NASCAR is tied to the FIA, whose policy impacts Russian competitors, via ACCUS, the former does not have such rules in place.

While the Roval is an infield road course, it provides Kvyat with the closest chance so far to race on an oval as the Roval uses much of the 1.5-mile oval. Although he is more known for his circuit racing, he has expressed interest in doing ovals and potentially racing full-time in the Cup Series in the future. A late model test with Hezeberg partner Reaume Brothers Racing in July also came on the short track Hickory Motor Speedway.

SHR’s #26 has been split between multiple drivers in 2022: Parker Chase, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Santino Ferrucci, Derek Griffith, Connor Mosack, John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, and Ryan Truex. Like Kvyat, Ferrucci comes from an open-wheel background.