Montmagny, QC – The NASCAR Canada Series (NCS) made its inaugural trip to Autodrome Montmagny, located east of Quebec City, for the series’ first finale outside of Ontario. Marc-Antoine Camirand did what he needed to secure his second championship in three years, while title hopeful Kevin Lacroix ended the year with his third straight victory.
Alex Labbé started on pole for the 250-lap race, at the 3/8-mile oval; Lacroix started second and Camirand started eighth. Camirand entered the finale 20 points ahead of Lacroix, needing only a top-15 finish regardless of other results.
Lacroix led the opening two laps before Labbé took the spot. An early caution set the stage for a lengthy green-flag run, where Labbé pulled away before Lacroix closed the gap and applied pressure, taking the top spot on Lap 78.
Lacroix stayed up front through a series of cautions, which included a red flag delay for a Lap 113 multi-car wreck between Andrew Ranger, Dave Coursol, and others, on the backstretch. Ranger entered the finale two points behind Lacroix and 22 behind Camirand in the championship battle; he started fourth and faded before the wreck ended his day.
Teams pitted during a halfway break on Lap 132. Lacroix continued to lead through a pair of cautions in the second half. Will Larue, making his second series start, in a new-for-2024 McColl Racing Enterprises car, restarted second to Lacroix on Lap 209. Larue put on a spirited battle, staying within one to two tenths of a second and making a couple of moves as the laps wound down.
Lacroix held on to beat Larue by 0.117 seconds, gaining maximum points, but Camirand finished sixth to secure the championship.
“It’s like winning the Stanley Cup, as soon as you got one, you want another one,” said Camirand. “I’m so proud of my team, we did a hell of a job during the season, with the best sponsor, GM Paillé…we won when it was time to win and we finished the race when it was time to finish the race.”
Camirand says that Ohsweken and GP3R stand out to him, winning on the dirt track after struggling a little the year prior, and winning his home race for the second straight year. Since Paillé Racing started in 2022, Camirand has been the best driver statistically, with 11 wins and 25 podiums in 40 races, winning the two championships and narrowly missing a third last year, when Treyten Lapcevich had a record-breaking campaign.
“When we started the program in 2022 and won our first championship in the first year, we built something that we’re really proud of,” said Camirand. “We spent time, we spent money on it, but I have the good guys behind the program; they deserve it. We work hard, we win some races, but behind that we have a great group of guys.”
Despite the recent success of Camirand, it’s Lacroix who was arguably the best driver this season. Scoring his sixth win of the year, at Montmagny, he also set new single-season NCS records with 1,204 laps led and 10 podiums. But with DNFs in large fields at CTMP and GP3R, he finished runner-up in the standings for the fifth time.
“Our race was fun, we had a good car like always…a good battle at the end, that made the race a little more exciting,” said Lacroix, who remains in search of his first title. “Even though we’re happy to win, it hurts a little bit…I’m the driver with the most wins in the last 10 years and also (one of) the driver with the most DNFs. When the car breaks, I cannot win races. But it’s nobody’s fault; everybody works so hard…we’re working really hard and it doesn’t pay off but we’re having fun and that’s the goal.”
Behind Lacroix and Larue, Alex Guenette completed the podium, while Mathieu Kingsbury and Donald Theetge rounded out the top-five.
It was a festive atmosphere in victory lane, with Camirand supporters chanting Paillé-Paillé-Paillé-Paillé, to the tune of soccer chant Ole-Ole-Ole, and Camirand-Camirand, to the tune of an MVP chant. The track also played ‘We Are the Champions’ to open its playlist after presentations concluded.
Behind Camirand and Lacroix, Ranger, D.J. Kennington and L.P. Dumoulin rounded out the top-five in the points standings.
