According to ESPN’s Marty Smith it has been agreed that F1 star Lewis Hamilton and former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart are due to swap cars this summer. News of the swap was confirmed by Stewart-Haas racing spokesman Mike Arning.
Hamilton will get to drive a road course prepared Chevrolet Impala – a different animal to the oval versions – and Stewart will drive a 2010 F1 McLaren MP4-25, both cars being legitimate race cars. The swap is said to have been arranged by Mobil 1 which sponsors both drivers and the most likely venue Watkins Glen, a road course.
This won’t be the first such swap, in 2003 Jeff Gordon drove Juan Pablo Montoya‘s F1 Williams whilst JPM drove Gordon’s DuPont Chevrolet. Both men claimed to have learned a lot about each others’ discipline and, of course, after losing interest in F1 Montoya moved to NASCAR where he still races for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.