Interview Nascar Anthony Kumpen

You are entering your second season in Nascar, what are your thoughts after your first season as a Nascar driver?
It has been an amazing season. Starting my first season my goal was to finish top 10 in the Nascar Whelen Euroseries or if it would be possible direction a top five spot. I never expected to be battling for the championship and for sure not winning it. I had no Nascar experience before we started and my team didn’t have any either. So it’s amazing what we have done.
I’m very happy I stepped into Nascar racing. For me it’s my best racing experience since I started 20 years ago. I can’t thank Nascar enough to give us the opportunity to race Nascar in Europe.

You have been to US to experience Nascar how was that?
It’s unreal how big Nascar is in US. It’s very difficult to describe the whole experience as it was simply fantastic. I think this movie wraps it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQSKJppVBg
From a racing point of view, obviously they are way more experienced in oval racing. As far as my racing performance over there, it was a bit below the level I wanted to be. I think I was a bit impressed with everything that was happening that week. But I learned a lot from my first race and I’m sure I can use this in my future racing in Europe and USA. It helped me become a better driver and that was the first important goal. Now I’m looking forward to my next US race, this summer.

What are your expectations for the new Nascar Whelen Euroseries season?
The championship is growing fast, there are better drivers coming and better teams. So it will be tough again.
The main thing is you do your best to improve your own level. Our team has 1 year experience now. They worked very hard during the winter. We added some experienced people to our structure. I think we can say that in this configuration we have to become at least 15 to 20% better.
As far as myself, I have 1 year of experience in Europe, I did quite some testing in USA. I adapted my physical training to the Nascar format as before I mainly did endurance GT racing. I’m definitely stronger as last season, so we should be stronger.

So the ultimate goal for this season?
We finish the Nascar Whelen Euroseries at Circuit Zolder, 10km from my home, where my racing started. It would be fantastic to grab another title there. On the other hand, I want to race in US some more, my ultimate goal would be Daytona 300 Xfinity series in February 2016.