Thomas Krasonis came close to the podium in Valencia

Thomas Krasonis came within a hair’s breadth of his first podium finish of the season in Sunday’s race at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia. The season opener of the 2026 NASCAR Euro Series was full of twists and turns for the 2025 OPEN class champion, as Saturday’s incident—which deprived him of the chance to celebrate a strong result— was followed by an excellent race on Sunday, in which he finished fourth.
On Saturday, the V8GP race was essentially over before it had even begun for the 24-year-old driver. Before the first lap was even complete, two race cars collided, causing them to veer onto the grass and subsequently crash uncontrollably into four other cars that were slightly ahead. One of them belonged to Thomas Krasonis, who, after some difficulty, managed to make it to the pits following the incident, where the PK Carsport mechanics were able to repair most of the damage within a few minutes. Krasonis returned to the track and tried to set a fast lap that would give him the chance to start from the front rows of the grid in Sunday’s race.
On Sunday, Krasonis started from 14th on the grid, but by the end of the first lap he had already gained four positions. He then drove both quickly and cautiously, and thanks to the retirements of Jouffreau and O’Brien, as well as the problems faced by Saturday’s winner, Gianmarco Ercoli, he made his way up to fourth place. However, the gap created by Vittorio Ghirelli, Garrett Lowe, and Nelson Piquet Jr. was such that, no matter how hard the Greek driver tried, he was unable to make it onto the podium. The winner was Krasonis’s teammate at PK Carsport, Vittorio Ghirelli, with Lowe in second and former Formula 1 driver Piquet Jr. in third. After the first two days of racing, Thomas Krasonis is in 7th place in the V8GP standings with 53 points.
This season, Thomas Krasonis is competing in the V8GP class—formerly known as PRO—driving the No. 13 Chevrolet Camaro for the championship-leading Belgian team, PK Carsport.
Costamare Shipping Company is a sponsor of Thomas Krasonis’s efforts in the NASCAR Euro Series.