Fittipaldi tries NASCAR

On lap 111, Fittipaldi was racing at the back of the pack when he was struck from behind by Hank Parker Jr and hit the wall in the second turn, putting him out of the race. Christian discovered that hitting the wall is the same whether it's in an open-cockpit CART race car or a stock car.

"There was a big bang when I hit it," said Fittipaldi. "A wall is always going to be a wall - I'll tell you, it's hard."

Driving in his first stock car race gave Fittipaldi some enjoyment but plenty of frustration.

"The car was really that hooked up in the first stint and then I ran out of fuel and lost a bunch of laps there," added Fittipaldi. "The second stint, I was really enjoying myself. My lap times got a lot better and the car was underneath me. Then somebody tapped me from behind and I was in the wall.

"All in all, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm more satisfied with the race than I was in qualifying. I was happy I made it into the field, but we weren't setting the world on fire. I'm happy because I took this weekend as a positive. I would like to do this more times."

Fittipaldi said he was backing off to make the turn, something that has to be done on a flat race track, when he was nudged by Parker.

"I had signalled to him I was going to let him by on the next straight," Fittipaldi said. "We were three or four laps down and I didn't want to screw someone else's race."

The cars Fittipaldi drove in Formula 1 and CART are very precise and are made to race. They have rapid acceleration and braking, and they turn with minimal effort. By contrast, a stock car has been described as something that won't accelerate, won't stop and won't turn.

"It's different," he said. "I struggled a lot the whole week and there is a lot of movement in the car. In my CART car, there is very little movement. I like the racing out there. It's very enjoyable.

"You can run side-by-side and run underneath people. The cars that aren't that good start to fall off so if you have a good car underneath you, you can start picking off spots. In my type of racing, we don't see that because it's hard to get that close to each other in CART."

Fittipaldi said he intends to race in 10-12 more Busch races next year because the CART series has some gaps in the schedule.

"I would really like to learn and get a lot better at it and do some testing," Fittipaldi said. "I leave the track having had a positive time. The result wasn't positive but I think if I had finished I could have finished in the top 20. I have a huge career in front of me and I have to take it one step at a time, and you can't do it all in one day.

Fittipaldi agrees that if a race driver is going to compete in the United States, he needs to experience NASCAR in some form to make a conclusion what it's all about.

"This is purest kind of motor racing in America," Fittipaldi said. "There isn't anything more pure than this. It's difficult because if you live in the CART community, everyone has hard feelings toward NASCAR. If you live in NASCAR, maybe a couple of guys have hard feelings toward the CART series. I wanted to stick my neck out there and see how it really is. That is what this weekend was all about."