HAGERSVILLE, ON (June 3, 2019)- For Andrew Ranger, it was weekend of dominance.
The NASCAR Pinty’s Series winningest driver scored his 25th career pole Saturday before dominating the rain-delayed APC 200 at Jukasa Motor Speedway. The 32-year-old driver from Roxton Pond, Quebec led a race-high 82 laps, extending his series-leading win total to 25.
Ranger took his No.27 MOPAR/ Pennzoil Dodge to the lead on Lap 122, passing Peter Shepherd III. After surviving two late restarts, Ranger held off a hard charging Kevin Lacroix in NASCAR Overtime to claim his first win since Toronto in 2018.
“You know, we were a top 10 driver that could win here so I was definitely nervous,” Ranger said. “But again, we decided to do the restart on the inside and it worked pretty good for us and we exit here with a nice win.”
Last year’s race winner Kevin Lacroix used the late restart to his advantage to claim the runner-up spot. The finishing order was reversed from the season-opening race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where Lacroix held off Ranger.
“The car is always good on long runs and we were hoping for the same today and that’s what happened,” Lacroix said. “We were able to have a good race and put the Bumper to Bumper car in second place and that’s good.”
Peter Shepherd III ran a solid race leading 25 laps and scoring his second podium finish since his return to the series last year.
LP Dumoulin and Alex Tagliani rounded out the top five.
Marc-Antoine Camirand and Mark Dilley both pulled off last race charges to the front, coming home sixth and seventh, respectively.
After leading 68 laps, and despite blowing a tire late in the race, D.J. Kennington was able to fight back and finish eighth. Jason White and Donald Theetge completed the top ten.
Lap 72 will go down in NASCAR Pinty’s Series history as the race leader upon completion was Julia Landauer. She becomes the first women to ever lead a lap in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series. She ran up front throughout the race before a late-race incident left her 15th.
With his win, Ranger takes over the lead in the standings, leading Lacroix by one point.. ] LP Dumoulin is in third, 10 points back, and Alex Tagliani and D.J Kennington are tied for fourth, 18 points out of the lead.
The NASCAR Pinty’s Series will take a few weeks off before returning to action Saturday, June 29 for the Budweiser 300 at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee-Jonction, Quebec.
Discussion about this post