Delaware, ON – The NASCAR Canada Series concluded its 2026 season at Delaware Speedway on Saturday night. Donald Theetge defended his wins from last year at the half-mile oval, near London, ON, while Marc-Antoine Camirand celebrated his fourth championship in five seasons.
Camirand started on pole, alongside Theetge, for the 200-lap season finale. Theetge pulled ahead after a couple of laps before Kevin Lacroix took the top spot on Lap 4. Lacroix and Theetge had a close side-by-side battle before Theetge returned to the front on Lap 13.
The first caution came on Lap 48 when Cayden Lapcevich, making his second start of the season, spun in turn one. Hometown favourite D.J. Kennington took the lead on the Lap 55 restart. The driver from St. Thomas, ON announced this week that he’ll drive the No. 51 for Rick Ware Racing, as the U.S.-based organization returns to the series. Kennington will still prep the cars with the same group of people, but the new ownership means support from Rick Ware Racing and a number change for D.J., who had competed in all 241 prior series races aboard the No. 17. That change came into effect for this race.
Theetge returned to the top spot on Lap 59 before the first of two competition cautions on Lap 76, providing teams with an opportunity to visit pit lane for scheduled work. Kennington once again edged ahead on the restart before Theetge returned to the front a few laps later.
On lap 134, caution for Lapcevich in the wall. Theetge stayed ahead until the next break caution, on Lap 151.
Rookie of the Year Connor Bell saw his team gamble, leaving him out on track during the break, which gave him the lead. Bell was able to pull ahead on the restart, with 44 to go, and held off Theetge, Lacroix and Kennington, who had been the cars to beat so far, for a portion of the race.
With 22 to go, Theetge took the lead. Lacroix moved up to second a few laps later, as Bell started to drop back. With 9 to go, caution for Nicolas Barrette spinning into the wall between turns one and two. The series brought out the red flag for cleanup; Barrette, who made his series debut last weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, was making his oval debut at Delaware.
At the same time as the yellow flag, Bell spun in turn three after some contact from Andrew Ranger, dropping him to 10th. The field restarted with three laps to go, where Lacroix briefly edged ahead before Theetge took the spot with two to go. Theetge took the victory in the NTN 200 presented by APC over Lacroix, Kennington, Camirand and Kyle Steckly.
The win makes it three straight at Delaware for Theetge, going back to the doubleheader in 2025. His fourth-career win comes after four runner-up finishes this season.
“Feel very proud to win that one, we worked for it and we got it,” said Theetge, who drove the No. 80 on short tracks, splitting the ride with Alex Tagliani. “It’s fun with D.J., I know we had a good battle together, a lot of respect between him and me, so that’s why we didn’t touch together side-by-side, that was very important for me. He had a great car, probably more before the last caution, and after that (Lacroix) was quick also and (Lacroix) was very polite also, he did a great job, he’s a good friend of mine, so I think we gave a great show to the fans.”
For Kennington, his third-place finish continues a dominant stretch at his home track, with 12 podiums and 15 top-fives in 15 series starts.
While he entered the 14th and final race of 2026 with the championship already in hand, Camirand was able to officially celebrate a season where he tied or broke single-season records. He tied records with seven wins, 10 podiums, 14 top-tens and an average finish of 2.6, while breaking his own record with 13 top-fives. The driver has 23 wins, 41 podiums, 52 top-fives and 60 top-tens since joining the then-new Paillé Course//Racing in 2022; those are all records for a five-season span.
“It feels really good, to do the three-peat was an awesome achievement for the No. 96 team…we’ve been really consistent all year long, I think that was the key to win that third championship in a row,” said Camirand. “Yes, we have great sponsorship, but the team works so hard year after year. It’s so easy to drive that No. 96 car, it’s a team effort; the guys work so hard at the shop and, when we show up to the race track, the car is always there. We have to tweak a little bit but we’re always around the top-five and battling for the lead.”
Bell took home rookie honours with eight top-tens in 14 races, a best finish of fourth (Streets of Markham) and having completed all but 20 of the 1,548 laps this season.
L.P. Dumoulin finished second in the championship standings, 87 points behind Camirand, followed by Lacroix (-113), Kennington (-147) and Ranger (-151), who missed two races.
Discussion about this post