Salo pondering NASCAR move

The Finnish driver was in attendance at Lowe's Motor Speedway during the race weekend, as he explores the possibility of making a first approach to NASCAR to evaluate if he would like to commit to it in the future.

"I have a little interest, yeah, so just having a look to see if there's any opportunity or anything for me to at least try the thing and know if I like it," Salo told autosport.com while visting the Sprint Cup garage. "I've driven everything else in the world, not NASCAR, so that's why I want to try it."

Salo has recently been competing in the American Le Mans series driving a Ferrari 430 GT for Risi Competizione, winning a couple of weeks ago in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

He has also competed in the FIA GT championship driving a similar car for Team AF Corse.

He confirmed he has already approached a couple of teams hoping to get an opportunity to drive a stock car for the first time. He said he still hasn't signed a contract for next year - although he expects to do so next week - but would like to sample the car first before progressing into further talks with teams.

"I've been in contact with a few teams and yeah, there's serious contact," Salo said. "But I'd like to try the car first before I sort of go any further. Just trying to work on a test day for now and see then.

"I haven't signed anything for next year yet but I will probably next week. Then I'm stuck but maybe next year I can try one."

The 41-year-old says he has followed NASCAR more closely since former Formula One colleague Juan Pablo Montoya made the switch two years ago. However, he admits he would like to have a first go on a road course, given that he has never raced on an oval before.

"Yeah I've followed [NASCAR] also before [Montoya] but obviously because he was also in Formula One there are certain things that make it interesting to see how he's doing," he said.

"They are good races. If I could choose I'd probably go to a road course first before the oval."