BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO – After a very disappointing 19th place finish in the season opener at Sunset Speedway on May 13th, Alex Tagliani rebounded nicely at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park by bringing the #18 St. Hubert – NTN Bearings – Qwick Wick Chevrolet Camaro home with a respectable 6th place finish in the eBay Motors 200. This finish propelled Tag to the 10th place position in the driver’s standings.
After all on-track activities were cancelled on Saturday because of rain, the 25 competitors only had 15 minutes of practice Sunday morning to get a feel for their car. Since qualifying was also cancelled, Tag started the race P5 because of his 5th place finish last year in the driver’s standings.
From the very start, Tagliani kept his Camaro solidly in the top 10. Tag pitted for fuel on lap 11 when the caution flag came out. He restarted 5th and drove up to the 2nd position. He maintained this place for several laps and pitted for tires on a lap 27 caution. When the race resumed on lap 30, Tagliani found himself back in 13th, but he was able to race up to the 7th place position over the next 10 laps. With only 11 laps remaining in the 51-lap event, Tag’s only chance of catching the leaders would be if caution came out. Unfortunately for Tagliani, the caution did not come out and he was only able to pick up one more spot to finish 6th. The race was won by Tag’s 22Racing teammate Treyten Lapcevich.
“It really wasn’t the result we were hoping for,” said Tagliani. “But if you consider how the weekend unfolded, we can be proud of the finish. We brought a brand new car with no laps and we had an oil leak on our shake-down.”
“We were counting on Saturday’s practice to learn more about the car, but it was cancelled because of the rain. Somehow we were able to make it work and score some much needed points. The team did an awesome job over the weekend in the garage and in the pits. We were a little unlucky with our pit stops and strategy. We lost a bunch of spots when some guys came in with the pits closed and they weren’t penalized. I’m looking forward to Chaudière. We had a great package at Sunset, so we should be good there.”
Up next, the NASCAR Pinty’s Series visits the bullring at Autodrome Chaudière on Saturday, June 10th in Vallee-Jonction, Quebec.
In the driver standings, Alex Tagliani moved up to the 10th place position, 32 points out of first.
The eBAY Motors 200 from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario will air on TSN3 on Saturday, May 27th at 4:00 pm ET and RDS2 in Quebec (TBD).
Fans can follow Alex Tagliani by visiting www.tagliani.com, or by following him on Twitter at @TAGLIANI, or @tagliani18 on Instagram and, like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Tagliani.
NASCAR.ca has live coverage of each event, including live timing and scoring, on Race Center.
From TAG Motorsport
