NASCAR News: F1 star Kevin Magnussen sets fastest lap on Cup Series debut

Former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen had a very eventful Sunday at San Diego as he made his NASCAR Cup Series debut for Trackhouse Racing.

Competing as part of Trackhouse's Project 91, Magnussen ended the race in a respectable 27th position out of the 39 drivers, having qualified 21st on Saturday.

Magnussen also secured the fastest lap of the race with his 132.49-second effort, 0.73 seconds faster than the fastest lap set by race winner Corey Heim, and 1.36 seconds faster than any effort made by road course expert and full-time Cup Series star Shane van Gisbergen.

Magnussen's debut was not without controversy, though, with the former F1 star having wrecked Front Row Motorsports' Noah Gragson and spun him around at one point during the race, causing race-ending damage to the No. 4 Ford.

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Kevin Magnussen and Noah Gragson in X-rated confrontation at San Diego

The incident came after the pair had been battling each other hard during the earlier stages of the race and had already made contact when Magnussen put his bumper into Gragson, causing him to veer off line.

"All these F1 d**kheads just think they get fenders and a f*****g' bumper, they just drive in the inside and just barrel into everyone. I've f****g had it," Gragson said over the radio before he was later wrecked in the race, as per Steven Taranto.

Naturally, later getting wrecked further irritated Gragson, who then confronted Magnussen post-race, as captured by Dalton Hopkins for Frontstretch.

Some of the conversation was inaudible, but when confronted by Gragson as to why he was wrecked, Magnussen replied: "F**k around and find out."

"What's your f*****g problem?" Gragson asked the F1 star at one point. "You guys come over here, you f*****g drive off into the corner just because you got fenders on it."

As Gragson continued to push for answers, Magnussen told him to 'get the f**k out of my face' and 'f**k off'.

Eventually, the pair separated and the confrontation was over, with only heated words and no punches having been exchanged.

Magnussen expected physical race

All of the above lived up to Magnussen's expectations, with the Trackhouse Racing debutant having revealed ahead of the race that he was expecting there to be some tough battling out on the track.

"I think from what I know about NASCAR, it's tough racing," he told the media at San Diego ahead of Sunday's event. "And, you know, the way the sporting rules are around racing each other is much more lenient than in European racing. So, yeah, that's part of what I have to get used to.

"I got a message from Jason Patton, who also did some races here and he said, be careful and be aware… they'll turn you around if they have any part of the track on your side. So, yeah, I think I'll just take it all in and try and enjoy all of it.”