Throughout his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series career, Jason Hathaway had visited victory lane on six different occasions, but never on a road course – till last Sunday. On Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Hathaway was able to get by L.P. Dumoulin in the closing laps and score the victory.
Hathaway ran strong throughout the race, putting himself in the top-five when it came time to battle for the win late in the restart. He then stayed out of some late-race contact to move into second on a final restart with three laps to go.
“We probably had a fifth place car by the time things shook out but kept track position and was able to see the front and get a couple of late cautions to give ourselves a shot at winning,” he commented.
As the field headed through turn two, Dumoulin would make a slight mistake off of the corner, which opened the door just enough for Hathaway. He would then get the run into turn three, taking the lead.
“L.P just didn’t get the run off of turn two there, and I got a good run off there – it’s been a good corner for me all day – and just capitalized on it,” he commented.
The driver of the No. 3 Fast Eddie Racewear/Mustoka Aircraft Center/HGC Chevrolet would then lead the rest of the way en route to scoring the victory.
While it marks his road course win, Hathaway has had success at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park before, scoring a third place finish a couple years ago.
“I’m no road racer – I’ll be the first to admit that,” he said post-race. “I had good track position, good pit stops – everything went well – and had a shot at the top-five. When it comes to the last five laps, anybody can win. Look at Gary Klutt – he did it in the spring. Like L.P. said, he just made one little error of two and I had some momentum and cleared him into three. He ran me real clean, and Jeff (Lapcevich) too. They were quicker than me – I’ll be honest. I just hung on and did what I could to win. We need some points heading into Kawartha.”
The victory allowed Hathaway to close the gap on the championship, now only nine points behind Scott Steckly heading into the season finale. With his future plans up in the air, a first championship for the Ed Hakonson Racing driver could be huge.
As noted post-race, Hathaway wasn’t planning on running the full schedule this season, but rather than just the first four races and Riverside.
“We ended up leading the points heading out west so we figured we better pack the trailer and see what happens,” he commented. “
Hathaway says that the plans for next year remain up in the air and will depend on whether sponsorship can be found.
“I have a couple sponsors to pitch – three big sponsors to pitch in the next three weeks and that’ll decide it,” he stated.
Hathaway added that series needs to also decide what they’re doing, in regards to a title sponsor, as Canadian Tire is leaving at the end of the season.
“We need a title sponsor, we need to make some changes and improve what we have already,” he continued. “I think the teams are very successful in making the series bigger, and we have a lot of young drivers that are coming up that are talented.”
Though in the midst of a lot of questions, there’s one thing for certain – Hathaway is having fun right now.
“We’ve done 108 races now and it’s still fun, enjoyable and there’s a lot of respect between the guys that run every week,” he said.
