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Jeff Lapcevich scores first career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series pole at CTMP

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/Getty Images

43-year-old Jeff Lapcevich would lay down the quickest lap (1:24.1 seconds) at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to win the pole for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. It marks the first career pole for the veteran in his 52nd career start.

“This is great,” Lapcevich commented after his pole winning lap. Lapcevich is running the No. 76 on his Tim Hortons Dodge this season rather than the No. 23  in honor of his father, who passed away during the off-season.

Lapcevich has made five starts this season, with his best finish being second back in May at CTMP. In seven starts on the road course, he has yet to win a race, though has six top 10 finishes.

“We’ll go see what we got,” Lapcevich added. “We’ll just set a good pace and I know it’s good on the long runs so if I can stay cool behind the wheel, we should be in good shape.”

Road course guru Andrew Ranger qualified second, only 0.043 seconds behind Lapcevich, after being one of the late entries for the race. Ranger had called his old car owner Dave Jacombs to run, yet Jacombs already had drivers in both of his cars. Ranger then got talking with defending series champion D.J. Kennington and Kennington prepared a car for Ranger to run this weekend.

Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

L.P. Dumoulin was third quickest after leading the first practice session this weekend with a lap of one minute and 24.2 seconds. The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

“We’ve been fast all day,” Dumoulin commented. “In qualifications, someone had a problem in turn one with an axle and I think it got a little slippery. We have a good position for the long race. We’ll just run strong and see how it works out tomorrow.”

Three-time CTMP winner J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth quickest as he looks to turn his season around following some bad luck.

Jason Hathaway, who won the last race ran by the Canadian Tire Series at Antogonish, was fifth quickest as he looks to carry the momentum. He currently sits third in points, 10 points behind points leader Scott Steckly.

Steckly was sixth quickest as he looks for his first win on the Bowmanville, Ontario road course.

“Obviously we like to be closer to the front but there was some oil dry on the track and we focus more on the race set-up rather than qualifying,” he commented afterwards.

Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington. He has won three races so far this year.

“We’re going to every race looking for the win and whatever happens, happens,” Steckly added.

Gary Klutt was seventh quickest, followed by Martin Roy, Peter Klutt and Kerry Micks. Kennington qualified in the 12th position.

Pos No. Name Sponsor Time Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 76 Jeff Lapcevich Tim Hortons 01:24.1 105.277 3 3
2 28 Andrew Ranger La Cite de Mirabel Inc/Plancher2000.ca 01:24.1 105.223 2 4 0.043
3 47 L.P. Dumoulin WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare 01:24.2 105.144 3 4 0.106
4 84 J.R. Fitzpatrick Equipment Express 01:24.4 104.924 3 3 0.283
5 3 Jason Hathaway Snap on Tools/Rockstar Energy Drink 01:24.4 104.901 3 4 0.301
6 22 Scott Steckly Canadian Tire 01:24.5 104.745 2 3 0.427
7 59 Gary Klutt * K-Line/Legendary Motor Car Co. 01:24.5 104.714 3 4 0.452
8 90 Martin Roy Batteries Expert/Veloce 01:24.7 104.562 2 4 0.575
9 42 Peter Klutt Legendary Motorcar 01:24.8 104.435 2 4 0.678
10 02 Kerry Micks BDI/Leland/PartSource 01:24.8 104.369 2 4 0.731
11 88 Marc-Antoine Camirand * Burger Barn 01:24.8 104.342 3 5 0.753
12 17 D.J. Kennington Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors 01:25.0 104.094 2 7 0.955
13 27 Chad Hackenbracht Jacombs Racing 01:25.1 104.025 4 5 1.012
14 7 Jeb Burton State Water Heaters 01:25.1 104.005 4 4 1.028
15 4 Ty Dillon Fitzpatrick Motorsports 01:25.2 103.920 1 3 1.098
16 39 Alex Guenette * Kawasaki/Motos Illimitees, DLGL 01:25.2 103.914 3 4 1.103
17 24 James Buescher 22 Racing 01:25.3 103.834 4 4 1.168
18 60 Ron Beauchamp, Jr. Mopar/Exide/Pennzoil 01:25.5 103.534 3 7 1.415
19 66 Robin Buck Quaker State 01:25.5 103.502 2 4 1.442
20 04 J.F. Dumoulin Bellemare, Manac 01:26.0 102.928 5 5 1.919
21 56 Howie Scannell Jr. K&B Auto/Trailers by Jim Bray 01:26.0 102.880 3 4 1.959
22 50 Joey McColm TSC Stores/Canada’s Best Store Fixtures 01:26.1 102.819 4 4 2.010
23 5 Noel Dowler Emco, Rheem, Praxair 01:26.3 102.609 4 7 2.186
24 15 Steve Mathews Bill Mathews Motors 01:26.3 102.588 3 7 2.204
25 19 Brad Graham Holmar Plumbing 01:26.4 102.494 2 2 2.283
26 21 Jason White Bowers & Wilkins/Thermal Technolgy 01:26.5 102.298 4 4 2.448
27 97 Hugo Vannini VTI Motorsports 01:26.8 101.938 4 7 2.754
28 81 Larry Jackson Touchwood Cabinets/B&B Decals 01:26.9 101.878 3 3 2.805
29 69 Trevor Seibert Lake Excavating/EMCO Waterworks 01:27.1 101.654 2 6 2.997
30 09 Ryley Seibert * Lake Excavating/Emco/Marshall’s 01:28.5 100.010 2 3 4.428
31 9 Curtis Fielding * Fielding Estate Winery 01:28.6 99.966 2 3 4.467
32 14 James Van Domselaar Steel-Craft Door Products 01:29.0 99.513 2 3 4.870
33 29 Ray Courtemanche Jr. La Cite De Mirabel Inc. 01:29.1 99.303 3 3 5.058
34 98 Matthew Scannell * Trailers by Jim Bray 01:29.4 99.059 3 3 5.278
35 67 Dave Thorndyke Lube Source/Thorson EVT 01:29.6 98.768 3 6 5.541
36 99 Paul Jean * BFI Canada/Transport Humar 01:38.3 90.076 1 1 14.190

*Rookie of the Year contender

Harvick earns redemption win in dominating fashion at Atlanta

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Noel Lanier

HAMPTON, Ga. – Kevin Harvick wasn’t about to lose another Nationwide Series race late in the going at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After dominating this same race last season only to be passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the last lap, Harvick again dominated the Great Clips / Grit Chips 300 but held off a furious charge from Kyle Busch over the last seven laps. Harvick led 132 laps on his way to his first NNS win of the season, 40th of his career.

“We were definitely too tight, just had to change my approach there a little bit at the end, knew Kyle was going to go for it but it’s fun racing with him,” said Harvick in Victory Lane.

“That’s two years in a row that we’ve had a dominant car and you think something’s going to go wrong, we just kept digging and these guys did a great job all weekend. Brought the same stuff we had last year and it worked again.”

Busch led the first 57 laps after winning his seventh pole of the season. Harvick however, was the class of the field and once he drove to the lead he quickly established control of the event. Just four cautions on the night helped him stretch his lead over the likes of Busch, Joey Logano and teammate Austin Dillon.

Dillon, who entered the day six points behind championship leader Sam Hornish Jr., ran behind Harvick throughout the middle portion of the race but his downfall were restarts. On the final one, which set up the seven lap shootout, Dillon and those behind him in the outside lane lost all their track position when Logano spun his tires.

Dillon finished the night eighth as Hornish drove to third and extended his point lead to 10 with nine races remaining.

“Our Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang was pretty good over the long run, but what happened is every time we got a long ways throughout the run we’d get kind of stuck behind some people and the car would free up a little bit,” said Hornish who finished in the top three for the fourth time in the last five weeks.

“We made some good adjustments to be able to make the car better and I had a direction that I wanted to go and Greg [Erwin, crew chief] had a direction he wanted to go and we put them both together and we were able to get a good restart and get our way up to third, so I’m real happy with the performance that we put out tonight.”

For as dominant as Harvick was however, it didn’t come without a potential problem. Leading with 31 laps to go he thought he had a loose wheel but decided to stay on track unless it became too much to handle. Logano, running second at the time, began to close the lead before the final caution and subsequent pit stop changed the complexion of the race.

“We had an okay car today. It was good the first run, really, really loose the second run,” said Busch on his runner-up finish, which included tagging the wall just past halfway.

“It was about a third-place car. I was going to run behind the 33 and the 22, but for the last restart with seven to go, we even made changes to free up our car and it just wasn’t enough.”

Kasey Kahne rebounded from a lap 44 spin to finish fourth with Kyle Larson coming home fifth. Larson was the highest finishing rookie but was he and teammate Nelson Piquet Jr.’s car failed post race inspection for being too low in the front end.

Allmendinger returning to Sprint Cup full-time with JTG-Daugherty

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Kirk Schroll

HAMPTON, Ga. – AJ Allmendinger’s whirlwind year continued Saturday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

JTG-Daugherty Racing officially introduced Allmendinger as their new driver beginning in 2014. He’ll replace Bobby Labonte in the No. 47 Sprint Cup Series entry. The team does not know as this time whether they’ll remain with Toyota or be switching to another manufacturer.

“Originally when we put AJ in the car, we were trying to verify some assumptions,” said co-owner Tad Geschickter during the announcement.

“I didn’t know AJ Allmendinger very well before then. He’s a phenomenal person. I was very impressed with his talent, enthusiasm, the way he interacted with the sponsors and everyone and the relationship I guess kind of evolved over the three races we’ve done.”

Allmendinger is driving the car this weekend at Atlanta and qualified the Scotts Products Toyota 13th for Sunday’s 500 mile ADVOCARE 500. The team has not decided if he will run any more than the already scheduled races as Labonte, who is currently healing from three broken ribs, is slated to finish the year in the car.

But for Allmendinger, he can wait. Over a year ago when he was suspended by NASCAR and taken out of his Penske Racing machine he had plenty of time to sit around and hope for the phone to ring. Penske eventually did come calling and after NASCAR reinstated Allmendinger he put him back behind the wheel.

His Cup ride was already taken but Allmendinger ran select Nationwide events, winning two road course races earlier this year, as well as IndyCar races. Including the Indianapolis 500 where he led laps and seemed to be in contention for the win late before a loose seatbelt derailed his day.

Now, he’s returning to the NSCS in a full-time ride.

“I’m excited. Just in the short amount of time that I’ve had a chance to work with them, the relationship that I’ve built – I feel like Tad and Jodi [Geschickter] and Brad [Daugherty] especially – everybody’s got such good family values, just a good values outlook on life,” said Allmendinger.

“It’s been great for me to be a part of the race team so far. It’s a good, little race team – a one car team. I feel like we can really build this race team and make it stronger and the guys that are on the race team starting with Bobby Hutchens [general manager] and on down the line – Brian Burns, the crew chief, all the guys – they’ve got such good energy, good attitude.”

All parties involved acknowledge the team needs to get stronger, as well as their alliances, in order for them to become consistent contenders. But all involved, including Allmendinger, believe that they can develop into something better. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and building, but the payoff will come.

“It’s just been a great year for me,” Allmendinger said. “All the opportunities that I’ve had to lead to this to be able to be back in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series full-time next year is something that at this point last year I never thought would happen.

“Just thoroughly excited and really ready to finish this season off strong and really looking forward to getting to Daytona next year. Just really thankful, happy and I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Scott Steckly leads final practice for Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at CTMP

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Nedlaw Photos

Two-time series champion and current points leader Scott Steckly led the final practice for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. He topped the charts with a lap of one minute and 23.271 seconds.

Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington. That marked his highest career finish at CTMP as he has yet to score a win on the Bowmanville, Ontario road course. Steckly has won four races so far this season.

L.P. Dumoulin, who led the first practice, was second quickest on the charts with a lap of one minute and 23.658 seconds. The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

Jeff Lapcevich was third quickest behind the wheel of his No. 23 Tim Hortons Dodge. Lapcevich has made five starts this season, with his best finish being second back in May at CTMP. In seven starts on the road course, he has yet to win a race, though has six top 10 finishes.

J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth quickest on the charts and will be a favourite come Sunday as he has won three times at CTMP.

Andrew Ranger rounded out the top five, 0.911 seconds behind Steckly. Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

Martin Roy was sixth, followed by Jason Hathaway, Peter Klutt and D.J. Kennington.

Defending Camping World Truck Series Champion James Busecher was 10th quickest and is running the NCAT race to get more experience before Sunday’s truck race. He will be joined in the race by truck regulars Chad Hackenbracht, Ty Dillon and Jeb Burton, who were 13th, 14th and 17th respectively.

Qualifying will take place at 4pm EST with the race scheduled for Sunday morning at 11am EST.

Chase Elliott leads final practice for Chevrolet Silverado 250

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

In the final practice for the Chevrolet Silverado 250, it’d be 17-year-old Chase Elliott would top the charts with a lap of 81.045 seconds.

This past off-season, NASCAR changed the age limit for the truck series, allowing 17-year-olds to run on ovals lesser than a mile and road courses. Drivers must be 18 years of age or older to run ovals a mile or longer. Elliott, a development driver for Hendrick Motorsports, took advantage of the new rule right away with his truck series debut earlier this season. Elliott has four top fives and five top 10s in his five career starts so far this year.

“Canadian Motorsports Park is a different track and a place I’ve never been to before,” Elliott said coming into the weekend. “A lot of guys are in the same boat there, so I think the guy who can adapt the quickest is going to have an advantage.”

Mike Skeen led the pair of sessions yesterday and today, was second in the morning session. This final session he was second once again, 0.440 seconds off of Elliott’s quick time. Skeen,a driver in the Pirelli Wold Challenge GT Series, is making his Camping World Truck Series debut debut. In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.

German Quiroga was third quickest once again as he has been throughout the weekend, 0.453 seconds off of Elliott in his No. 77 Otterbox Toyota Tundra.

Miguel Paludo was fourth quickest, followed by his teammate James Buescher. Buescher noted yesterday that with each session on the track, he continues to learn what he needs to do better and get quicker.

“I know a lot of areas that I can improve – probably about half the corners,” he said yesterday. “So it’s just going to be gaining experience lap after lap and following some guys is always helpful. Going back and watching the video is helpful too, and working on breaking down the corners with my teammates and stuff is going to be helpful. I feel there is a lot more to gain, but I feel pretty good about we’ve learned and our chances this weekend.”

Road course ace Max Papis was sixth quickest, followed by Ty Dillon, Joey Coulter, Jeb Burton and Ross Chastain.

Points leader Matt Crafton was 11th quickest, matching his position on the charts from the morning session.

Coming into the weekend, Crafton said the key for the weekend was surviving.

“That’s all its about,” he said. “Definitely you want to be fast, but at the same time, you want to keep all four tires on the black stuff. If you stay on the road and you’re there at the end, you’ll contend for the win or a top five without a doubt.”

Qualifying for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 will be at 5pm EST today with the race scheduled for Sunday at 2pm EST.

Toyota NSCS Atlanta JTG-Daugherty Notes & Quotes

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SM Archive
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CHEVY NSCS AT ATLANTA: Mark Martin Press Conf. Transcript

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SM Archive
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AdvoCare 500 Pit Notes – Saturday, August 31 – Page 1

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SM Archive
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L.P. Dumoulin quickest in Printy’s presents the Clarington 200 first practice

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Nedlaw Photos

In the first practice for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, L.P. Dumoulin topped the speed charts with a lap of one minute and 24.2 seconds.

The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

Points leader Scott Steckly was second quickest, 0.083 seconds off of Dumoulin, in his No. 22 Canadian Tire Dodge as he looks for his fourth win of the season. Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington.

Rookie Alex Guenette was third quickest on the speed charts, 0.373 seconds off of Dumoulin’s quick time. Guenette is looking for his first NCATs win this weekend. The Quebec native didn’t fair well at CTMP in the spring as he finished 26th, though had a second place finish at St. Eustache about a month ago.

Fellow Quebec native and series past champion Andrew Ranger was fourth quickest, 0.459 seconds off of Dumoulin. Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five as he looks to turn his season around after blowing the motor the last time the NCATs were out in Antoganish. Fitzpatrick has been great at CTMP in the past, winning in his three of his seven starts.

D.J. Kennington was sixth quickest, followed by Gary Klutt, Jason Hathaway, Peter Klutt and Jeff Lapcevich.

Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars are running the NCATs race this weekend for extra experience. Ty Dillon was the highest of them in practice, laying down the 15th quickest lap. Chad Hackenbracht was 21st, followed by James Buescher in 22nd and Jeb Burton in 23rd.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will have one more practice this afternoon before they qualify.

 

Chase Elliott tops morning practice at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Getty Images

For the first time this weekend, someone other than Mike Skeen topped the speed charts at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park as Chase Elliott was quickest this morning. Elliott laid down a lap of 81.063 seconds behind the wheel of his No. 94 Aaron’s Dream Machine/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet Silverado.

Elliott has a pair of road course ARCA starts under his belt this year with an average finish of 3.5 between them.

“Having two road course starts in the ARCA Racing Series earlier this year definitely won’t hurt,” Elliott said. “Having a chance to do some road racing this year is always going to be an advantage. However, Canadian Motorsports Park is a different track and a place I’ve never been to before. A lot of guys are in the same boat there, so I think the guy who can adapt the quickest is going to have an advantage.”

Skeen was second quickest behind the wheel of his No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet Silverado, 0.351 seconds behind Elliott. Skeen,a driver in the Pirelli Wold Challenge GT Series, is making his Camping World Truck Series debut debut. In his past four Pirelli World Challenge GT Series starts at CTMP, he has four poles and four wins. Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.

“Anytime you have that much success with a track you’re comfortable with it,” Skeen commented. “But this is a whole other world. I’ve had very little time in stock cars and not certainly any round here.”

Skeen says so far, it’s been learning about how far he can push the truck before it gets out of shape, and then learning his competition.

“I’ve only been watching these guys on TV so I don’t know have a good feel of who I am going up against,” he commented. “I think that’s a big thing when you’re in a new series – trying to get the personalities of the drivers you’re going to go up against. Certainly trying to learn that and probably won’t learn that till race time. That’s the biggest unknown for me, but certainly very confident.”

Ryan Blaney was third fastest behind the wheel of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford, with NASCAR Canadian Tire Series regular Alex Guenette finished fourth. Miguel Paludo was fifth quickest.

“I can’t wait to get on the road course and see what we’ve got,” Blaney said. “I know we’ll be fast. This team has been on a tear of late. I’m confident our Cooper Standard team will have a shot at winning Sunday afternoon which will put us right back in the championship hunt.”

Ty Dillon was sixth, followed by Max Papis, Darrell Wallace Jr., Chad Hackenbracht and German Quiroga.

Points leader Matt Crafton was 11th quickest.

The Camping World Truck Series will have another practice this afternoon followed by qualifying later today.

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