The announced racing schedule for NASCAR's Garage 56 program ended with this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Jenson Button got one more chance to drive the Le Mans special at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. In a celebration fitting for NASCAR, he used the opportunity to do two massive burnouts.
Button starts with a burnout off the line, which he holds for 20 seconds. When that finally ends, he follows it up with a classic donut. It is a fitting victory celebration for a car that completed almost all of its goals, out-dragging LMP2 cars on the straights and out-running GTE-Am cars on one-lap pace throughout the race. The car suffered a late transmission problem, but an otherwise faultless weekend at the Circuit de la Sarthe showed the world that NASCAR is more than just noise and high-contact racing. In the right conditions, with the right modifications, this basic Next Generation stock car is downright fast.
While Button indicated on Twitter that the Goodwood run was his last time in the car, the 2009 F1 world champion still has one more race left on his part-time NASCAR schedule. After qualifying in the top ten at Chicago, Button will get another chance to make a splash in his final race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course next month. Those races are officially run for Rick Ware Racing, although Button's cars are effectively built and run by Stewart-Haas Racing in a complicated arrangement.
