Meira, Piquet to test truck for RHR at Rockingham

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Brazilian natives and open-wheel veterans Nelson Piquet Jr. and Vitor Meira will test a Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra at the "Little Rock" short track at Rockingham Speedway for Red Horse Racing on Oct. 12.

The one-day test will be the first time behind the wheel of a stock car for Formula 1 driver Piquet, the son of former three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet; and IndyCar Series veteran Meira.

Piquet

Red Horse Racing will field two No. 1 Toyotas for Piquet and Meira to test on the short track, which was built as a copy of the Truck Series' next venue, Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Red Horse drivers Timothy Peters and T.J. Bell will also be on hand to help the open-wheel drivers acclimate to their first stock car test.

Just 24 years old, Piquet Jr. has already made a name for himself in several racing series around the globe. He experienced instant success in South American Formula 3, finishing fifth in the championship after running only half of the races in 2001. Piquet also became the youngest driver ever to win the British F3 title, earning him recognition by the Formula One community.

Piquet continued to impress in the F1 feeder series, GP2. He earned one race win and four podium finishes in his first year. He followed that season with a run for the championship, eventually finishing second, but his performance led to ING Renault signing him as a test driver for their F1 team in 2007. After a year as a test driver, Piquet Jr. got his chance to race in the F1 series alongside teammate Fernando Alonso in 2008 and 2009, before being fired earlier this season.

He then became the center of a scandal in which he admitted to intentionally crashing his car in last year's Singapore Grand Prix to benefit Alonso, who won the race.

Meira

Meira, 32, started his racing career much the same way, in South American Formula 3, where he earned eight victories en route to winning the 2000 championship. That same year he tested an IndyCar Series car for Panther Racing at Texas Motor Speedway. By 2003, Meira's IndyCar Series career was in full swing and with each passing year, he has seen more and more success and has been a part of some of the most prestigious teams in the series including Team Menard, Rahal Letterman and Panther.

At the end of 2008, Meira had earned more than 50 top-10 finishes in his IndyCar career, which spans eight years, including runner-up finishes in the 2005 and 2008 Indianapolis 500s.

Both Piquet and Meira plan to use this test with Red Horse to evaluate a future career in NASCAR. Pacific Mobile will be a sponsor of the test as they also evaluate Camping World Truck Series racing.

"We look forward to helping Vitor Meira and Nelson Piquet make the transition into NASCAR," Red Horse Racing owner Tom DeLoach said. "It's not an easy thing to do -- to go from an open-wheel background to racing stock cars -- but they are both immensely talented and have the ability to be successful in any series they choose to race in."