Rossi tries his hand at NASCAR

Fresh from his sixth place finish in the first ever MotoGP race in Texas, Valentino Rossi headed to the spiritual home of NASCAR -- Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina -- for a spin in Kyle Busch’s Toyota Camry.

After Busch, who’s won the last three NASACAR races, put in numerous high-speed laps on the fabled 24-degree banked oval, it was Rossi’s turn to fire the 358 cubic inch, 650hp engine into life. Once he got the car up to speed – around 185mph – Rossi became more and more comfortable and his lap times dropped dramatically.

"It was so cool to understand the feeling!" said Rossi.

"I have a lot of friends from Europe and Italy follow NASCAR. It looks like it’s a completely different type of racing than what we do in Europe and I expected something more like this -- exciting, high speed and a great feeling in the corner. In the bank you have a lot of grip, so you are glued on the racetrack. It was great, I enjoyed it a lot. I love driving the race car, and I always have, so it was exciting to drive a NASCAR."

Rossi added:  "At the beginning it was a bit strange because it’s difficult to go straight. But after some laps, I had a lot of confidence and I was able to go faster and faster and faster. I must say I got along very well with Kyle. He’s a good guy. I like him and he gave me a lot of important advice."