Juan Pablo Montoya had not seen Kimi Raikkonen since 2006 when Montoya went over to talk to Raikkonen in the Camping World Truck Series garage at Charlotte.

Raikkonen was making his NASCAR debut, and Montoya went to give him some advice.

They were teammates at McLaren in Formula One in 2005 and 2006 but that doesn’t mean they have a strong relationship.

When asked if they talked more in the NASCAR garage than when they were F1 teammates, Montoya laughed and replied: “I think so.”

So why did Montoya approach Raikkonen?

“I went to say, ‘Hi’ and see how he was doing,” Montoya said. “People did it to me here, and I was really shocked. If I can help, I’ll lend my hand.”

Raikkonen is on the entry list to make his Nationwide Series debut at Charlotte on Saturday. Joe Nemechek is listed as the team owner, but the car has been housed at Kyle Busch Motorsports, which fielded the truck for Raikkonen.

There is a chance that Raikkonen could compete in the Sprint Cup Series later this year on a road course. He is expected to spend Tuesday testing a Sprint Cup car for Robby Gordon Motorsports  at Virginia International Raceway.

Montoya said Raikkonen eventually would have to do switch to NASCAR full time to be successful.

“It will bite you if you don’t do it properly in the long term,” Montoya said. “It depends on if he likes it. It’s shocking at the beginning of the races. Once you race around so many people all the time, it’s like, ‘Wow. I haven’t done that in a while. Or ever.’”

(source: Bleacher Report)