BOWMANVILLE, ON (August 26, 2019)- Kevin Lacroix left Riverside International Speedway last week feeling like he had let one get away. After leading the most laps, including the white flag lap, Lacroix lost to Jason Hathaway in a thrilling overtime finish.
This week, Lacroix came into a track he knows well – Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – looking to jumpstart his title hopes. Lacroix put together a ‘perfect’ weekend, taking the pole award before winning the TOTAL Quartz 200 in heart pounding fashion.
“We were pretty much shaken after the race [Riverside] for points” Lacroix said. And now we’re here [CTMP] and we had the chance to make a perfect weekend, that was the plan, thats what happened so we’re really happy.”
Lacroix’s led the first 20 laps in his No.74 Bumper to Bumper Dodge before calamity struck. Lacroix made an unscheduled pit stop, pushing him down the order and over 10 seconds back from the leaders.
The Saint-Eustache, Quebec driver took advantage of restarts to fight his way up to front. A late race accident set a up a NASCAR Overtime finish, which Lacroix took perfect advantage of. Lacroix’s win, coupled with trouble for points leader Andrew Ranger has the pair tied atop the standings with three races to go.
“Andrew Ranger had some bad luck and it ties us heading into the next three races. That’s going to be an exciting end of the season” Lacroix added “We’re really looking forward to the last few races, I’m really confident but I know Andrew is going be good there too so we have to keep up.”
Alex Tagliani had dominated the middle portion of the event leading 24 laps. In NASCAR overtime it was a two-man fight. Like countless Trucks and Pinty’s races past, Lacroix made his move in the infamous turn 10. Diving to the inside, Lacroix muscled his way by the Rona/EpiPen Chevrolet to claim his fifth CTMP victory, sweeping both events for the second time in his career.
In a post-race act of displeasure, Tagliani hit the door of the No.74 forcing him into the grass. No further altercations occurred post race.
In the ensuing dust cloud, Marc-Antoine Camirand was able to sneak through and claim his first podium of 2019. Camirand’s No. 22 GM Paille Chevrolet equals his best CTMP finish that he scored last May.
“I’m just happy to be back on the podium,” Camirand said. “It was a crazy race, we battled for the lead all race long and on the last restart when Kevin was in third place, I knew he was going to push hard to pass Alex and I let them go.”
For his second road course race in a row, JF Dumoulin found himself on the podium. Leading a lap and running clean all race long, Dumoulin snuck by Tagliani in the final corner to claim his fourth career podium.
Despite having the lead taken away in the final curve, Tagliani was able to hold on for a fourth-place finish. CBRT’s Anthony Simone would score his best finish of the season in fifth.
Jason Hathaway and D.J Kennington were sixth and seventh, respectively.
Simon Dion-Viens rebounded after a mid-race spin to finish eighth. Points leader Andrew Ranger blew a right rear tire after contact with the No.20 of Raymond Guay, Ranger would come home ninth. Julia Landauer was involved in a crash with Chandler Smith, suffering heavy rear-end damage Landauer would complete the top ten on the lead lap.
Fans can catch the race on TSN, Sunday, September. 1 at 1:30 p.m. and on RDS2 – Friday, September. 20 at 10 p.m. The NASCAR Pinty’s Series will be back in action Saturday September 7 for the Lucas Oil 250, the final NASCAR race at Autodrome Saint-Eustache.
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