Each week there will be a spotlight on certain drivers from the past weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
This weeks driver profile focuses on Mattias Ekstrom. This past week at Infineon Raceway, he was the substitute driver for Red Bull Racing's #83 car for Brian Vickers. As well all know, Vickers has been out of the racecar since he was diagnosed with blood clot in both his legs and lungs back in early May. Casey Mears has been the replacement driver for the past couple of weeks, but an accident that happened last weekend at Michigan International with his teammate, Scott Speed, had him seeking other options if he wanted to continue racing on the Cup circuit. Moving on, Mattias had an awesome run going at Infineon... until it was ruined by a late race run-in with the #12 Penske Dodge driven by Brad Keselowski. I'm pretty sure Ekstrom would have gotten a top 15, if not a top 10 finish in his first ever NASCAR race. He also became the first Scandinavian driver to race in NASCAR.
Mattias was born on July 14, 1978 in Falun, Sweden. Since 2001, he has been competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi.
CAREER
He was the DTM champion back in 2004. Before that, he had finished 4th in 2003, and 3rd in 2002. In the 2005 season, he finished 2nd behind Gary Paffett. He was also the Swedish Touring Car champion in 1999. Ekstrom is also active in rallying and the World Rally Championship.
In 2006, Ekstrom won the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy and earned the title Champion of Champions at the 2006 Race of Champions, by winning over Sebastien Loeb in the individual event finals.
He won his second DTM title in 2007 and went on to win the 2007 Race of Champions, beating Michael Schumacher in the individual finals. In 2009, he won the Race of Champions once more beating the seven time world champion in the final.
Now you know a little bit more about Mattias Ekstrom. Hope he comes back to Cup racin' in August for Watkins Glen!
Until next time, i'm Steph Piech for The Finish Line
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