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Former Renault Formula One driver Nelson Piquet - Source: Reuters
Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who left Formula One under a cloud last year, said on Wednesday he had passed up a chance to stay in the sport because he was fed up with all the aggravation.
"I could have been there if I wanted to. A team offered me to be there," the Speed TV website (www.speedtv.com) quoted the 24-year-old as saying.
"I just thought I was sick and tired of all of the stuff over there.
"I just took a decision of starting a new step in my career and a new challenge in coming to NASCAR."
Piquet triggered one of Formula One's biggest scandals after being dropped by his Renault team in July when he told the sport's governing body he had crashed deliberately in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help team mate Fernando Alonso win.
Renault were handed a suspended permanent ban while former team boss Flavio Briatore was given a lifetime exclusion, a sanction overturned by a Paris court this month subject to appeal by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Piquet, whose compatriot Bruno Senna is due to make his Formula One debut with the new Spanish-based Campos Meta team this year, did not say which team had approached him.
The Brazilian tested in Florida last week with the Red Horse Racing team in NASCAR's Camping World truck series and is hoping to establish himself in the U.S. series.
"For a lot of people who are outside of America, it's a downgrade," he said.
"But in terms of career, of how big the sport is in a lot of ways, it's even a tougher step than F1.
"The level of competition and the seriousness and the business of both series are very, very high. I was just sick and tired of things over there. I got a very, very good opportunity over here to start my career here and I'm here."
