L.P. Dumoulin led the second half of the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to pick up his second victory of the season. Dumoulin went with the strategy of pitting early and worked his way to the lead on lap 31 around Marc-Antoine Camirand. From then on, Dumoulin held on and took home the victory.
“We had a good strategy by pitting early for tires and fuel, and after that we just gained positions after everyone else was pitting,” Dumoulin said. “I was trying really hard to keep a good pace and not overdriving my car so that for the last 10 laps I could be really hard on it.
“I didn’t know the race was going to go red [flag] and that they were going to give the checkered flag. I was just ready to go and finish the race.”
The race was scheduled for 51 laps, though was cut to 42 laps as a result of it not being completed in its allotted time slot. The final caution flew at lap 42 when Ron Beauchamp Jr. and Ray Courtemanche Jr. got sideways, with Steve Mathews driving straight into Courtemache’s car up in turn eight.
Martin Roy would play his strategy right and stay out of the accidents to finish second for his best career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series finish.
Andrew Ranger, running a car for D.J. Kennington, finished third to mark his fifth top 10 in six career starts at CTMP.
“My car was really, really good and I was very happy because it was my first weekend with D.J. Kennington,” Ranger said. “At the end I was trying to push really hard, at the same time trying to save my tires, but the last caution came out and we were not able to finish the race.”
Ranger’s car owner D.J. Kennington finished fourth to take over the points lead, now sitting three points ahead of Scott Steckly heading to the final two races of the season. Steckly finished 11th.
J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five, followed by Camirad, Gary Klutt, pole sitter Jeff Lapcevich, Howie Scannell Jr. and Robin Buck.
Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers ran the NCAT race in preparation for their own event. Jeb Burton was the highest finishing of the four, finishing 12th with Chad Hackenbracht behind him in 13th. James Buescher pulled behind the wall after 34 laps due to a broken rear-end while Ty Dillon pulled behind the wall after 32 laps due to over-heating from earlier contact in the race.
Jason Hathaway, who came into the event third in points, was on pit road for a couple laps due to mechanical issues under the hood, which resulted in a 25th place finish. Hathaway falls to fourth in points, now 27 points behind Kennington for the lead and six points behind Dumoulin for third.
The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is in action once again next weekend at Barrie Speedway on Saturday night.
