Impressive NASCAR debut for Mattias Ekström

Double DTM champion Mattias Ekström had an impressive NASCAR debut yesterday at Sonoma in the USA and was very much pleased.
“Everything matched my expectations. Everyone raced hard but fair from the beginning of the race,” said Ekström.

The Swede started 38th and had fought his way up to 11th when he got hit by another car and dropped down to 21st over the finish line.

“It is unfortunate we couldn’t get a better result. The car felt awesome all race, expecially in long runs,” said Ekström.

Jimmy Elledge, crew chief of the Red Bull Racing Team, was pleased with the work of Ekström.

“It was an honor working with Mattias. He proved himself today – everyone in NASCAR knew he was here. Sorry we didn’t get a better finish because he deserved it. Great effort all weekend,” said Ellegde.

Ekström was one of the drivers doing most overtaking maneuvers of the entire field.

“It felt great to lead my first laps in NASCAR. I’m still taking everything in, still high on emotion. I had about 50 overtaking maneuvers during the race and touched more other cars than in ten years of DTM,” said Ekström.

Next up for Ekström is DTM at Norisring in two weeks, a completely different story compared to NASCAR.

“It’s a completely different world and I would definately like to come back again some time. I will keep a lot of memories and guess I will not sleep a minute during the flight back. But when I step out the plane in Europe again it’s all about focussing on the next DTM race at Norisring on 4 July,” said Ekström.