Scott Steckly returns to victory lane in National 250 at St.-Eustache
After winning the championship last season, this year hasn’t gone according to plan as struggles have been found for Scott Steckly at each turn. However, the tide looks to be turning as the Milverton, Ontario native scored the victory in the National 250 at Autodrome St.-Eustache.
“The car was just awesome,” Steckly said. “I was just patient the whole night and didn’t abuse the car. We’ll just take the win and move on.”
Leading the majority of the laps, Steckly put his No. 22 Canadian Tire/Sylvania Dodge out front for the final time at lap 219, leading the rest of the event at the flat 0.4 mile oval.
“I just like coming here,” Steckly said. “It’s a real tight flat oval, and we usually have a good setup coming to this track.”
Last year’s rookie of the year Alex Guenette finished second for the second straight year in a row as he continues to search for his first career victory.
“I pushed real hard to try to pass Scott [Steckly], but I finished second to him again this year,” Guenette said. “Hopefully, soon enough we will be able to pull a win.”
L.P. Dumoulin finished third to extend his points lead to 17 points over J.R. Fitzpatrick.
“It’s awesome for us,” Dumoulin said of his third place finish after the team struggled a bit earlier in the day. “We’ve had a really good season so far and we want to keep it that way.”
Anthony Simone snapped his bad luck with a fourth for his first top-five of the year, followed by Jeff Lapcevich. Lapcevich’s fifth place finish marks his second top-five in four starts thus far this year. Noel Dowler finished sixth, followed by Mark Dilley, Andrew Ranger, D.J. Kennington and J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top 10. Riding a wave of solid oval finishes, Jason Hathaway wouldn’t have the finish that he wanted in finishing 11th after a pit road speeding penalty.
Rookie Alex Labbe won the pole in his seventh start, though found himself out of the race before the end as a result of suspension issues.
Fans can catch on the National 250 on TSN on Sunday August 3rd at 11 a.m. EST. The Canadian Tire Series will be back on track on August 9th and 10th for the JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres.
NCATS St-Eustache 7/26/14 Unofficial Results
| Fin | Str | Car | Driver | Team | Laps | Points | B/Points | Status |
| 1 | 2 | 22 | Scott Steckly | Canadian Tire/Sylvania Dodge | 250 | 48 | 5 | Running |
| 2 | 4 | 39 | Alex Guenette | Motos Illimitées Dodge | 250 | 43 | 1 | Running |
| 3 | 14 | 47 | L.P. Dumoulin | WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge | 250 | 42 | 1 | Running |
| 4 | 12 | 95 | Anthony Simone | Innovative Plumbing & Mechanical Dodge | 250 | 40 | Running | |
| 5 | 11 | 76 | Jeff Lapcevich | Tim Hortons Dodge | 250 | 39 | Running | |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Noel Dowler | Empire Mechanical Chevrolet | 250 | 39 | 1 | Running |
| 7 | 10 | 02 | Mark Dilley | Johnsonville/Leland/Bluemer Ford | 250 | 37 | Running | |
| 8 | 9 | 27 | Andrew Ranger | Mopar/Exide Dodge | 250 | 36 | Running | |
| 9 | 7 | 17 | D.J. Kennington | Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge | 250 | 35 | Running | |
| 10 | 3 | 84 | J.R. Fitzpatrick | Equipment Express Chevrolet | 250 | 35 | 1 | Running |
| 11 | 15 | 3 | Jason Hathaway | Princess Auto/Rockstar Energy Drink Chevrolet | 249 | 34 | 1 | Running |
| 12 | 5 | 18 | Alex Tagliani | EpiPen/Dicom Express Dodge | 248 | 32 | Running | |
| 13 | 13 | 97 | Hugo Vannini | VTI Motorsports Ford | 245 | 31 | Running | |
| 14 | 16 | 24 | Ray Courtemanche Jr. | La Cité de Mirabel Inc./Blackshape Dodge | 244 | 30 | Running | |
| 15 | 17 | 56 | Matthew Scannell * | OMVIC/K&B Auto Service Dodge | 243 | 29 | Running | |
| 16 | 1 | 72 | Alex Labbe * | Lou’s BBQ/VR Victoriaville Dodge | 101 | 28 | Suspension | |
| 17 | 8 | 25 | Joey McColm | Canada’s Best Store Fixtures Dodge | 36 | 27 | Accident |
Ty Dillon Scores First Nationwide Series Victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
In only his second start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ty Dillon took the famed black No. 3 car of his grandfather, Richard Childress, to victory lane in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Lilly Diabetes 250.
The race was Dillon’s 31st NNS start and he also won the “Dash 4 Cash,” pocketing an extra $100,000 bonus for the win.
The Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet started in the third position and ran among the leaders most of the day before leading the final 24 laps of the race. Dillon lost his air conditioning in the opening laps of the race and said afterwards, “I was definitely pushed. My AC went out before I think we even took the green, so I could already feel it getting hot. I knew I could make it through it for sure, but when Kyle Busch is on you, pushing you as hard as you can go, that guy doesn’t mess up, so I knew I had to be perfect every lap. That definitely takes a lot more out of you.”
Busch, driving the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, led 10 laps before settling for a second place finish. Busch started the race from the pole but never led until later in the race before being overtaken by Dillon on a restart with 24 laps to go. When asked about the restart, Kyle said, “I slipped and he got right by me. Just drove right underneath me. That was the race right there. I could maintain with him. If I could have been out front I probably could have held him off.”
Matt Kenseth, driving the No. 20 Resers Toyota, started in the second position and finished third leading eight laps during the day. “The strategy was good. The caution fell at the right time and we could make it on fuel. We were a little off from the best couple cars, but we got our track position there and got a decent finish,” said Kenseth after the race.
Kevin Harvick started the race in the fourth position and finished in the same spot after leading the most laps in the No. 5 Morton Buildings Chevrolet. Harvick took the lead from Matt Kenseth early in the day and would lead three times for 33 laps.
Joey Logano finished in the fifth position driving the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. After the race, Logano said, “Whoever gets out front is gonna win the race. That’s how this place is and that’s why strategy and restarts are so important to make up as much time as you can because it’s just one lane around here.” Logano led twice for 21 laps and was strong throughout the day.
Chase Elliott, who won his third race of the season last weekend and leads the series points standings by four over his teammate Regan Smith, finished in the 12th position. Smith finished in 10th place.
There were nine lead changes among six different drivers and a total of three cautions for 17 laps.
