What Karthikeyan can do for any race series

Narain Karthikeyan

The worldwide appeal of Narain Karthikeyan became evident Monday when the former Formula One driver from India received the Most Popular Driver award for NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series. The winner was determined by fan voting on NASCAR.com.

Karthikeyan, 33, drove a nine-race schedule for locally owned Turn One Racing (formerly Wyler Racing) through a partnership with Starbeast Motorsports. His best finish was 11th in June at Texas Motor Speedway.

Each of his truck races was broadcast live in India, he said.

"It's good that fans in India are supporting me," Karthikeyan said. "I've found some new fans here, too. The biggest thing is taking NASCAR to India. NASCAR's going to have a huge fan base back home."

But, we ask again, what is this Indian doing racing in a xenophobic red-neck race series like NASCAR where he will amount to nothing, instead of an open wheel series like IndyCar that has a more international friendly fan base and drivers from all over the world?