Busy Weekend in Store for 22 Racing with Four Cars Entered in NASCAR Pinty's Series Race at CTMP
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2019-08-22
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ALEX TAGLIANI: DRIVER, NO. 51 CANTORQUE TUNDRA | CANADA PREVIEW
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Overview
Event: Gander Truck Series 250 (Race 18 of 23), 64 Laps – 20/20/24; 157.37 Miles
Location: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario (2.459-mile road course)
Date/Broadcast: Aug. 25, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- O Canada, this weekend the No. 51 team will head north to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for a 64-lap event on Sunday, with Canadian road-course ace Alex Tagliani behind the wheel and three Canadian companies on the side of the Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) Tundra. The Canadian has two poles, 15 laps led, one top-five and two top-10 finishes across four career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series starts, all coming at the 2.459-mile road course north of the border. In addition to four Gander Truck Series starts, Tagliani has compiled four poles, 92 laps led, four top-five and five top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 13.0 across eight NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, all on road courses.
- Tagliani currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty's Series where he has recorded one win, one pole, 42 laps led, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes across nine starts and sits fourth in the championship standings this season. Overall across 80 career Pinty's Series starts Tagliani has collected nine wins, 10 poles, 35 top-five and 55 top-10 finishes. He led a race-high 23 laps en route to victory in last year's Pinty's Series race, which was held prior to the Gander Truck Series event, and will also be pulling double duty again Sunday.
- Last weekend at Bristol, Toyota Racing Development protégé Chandler Smith earned a second-place finish in the iBUYPOWER Tundra in just his third Gander Trucks start and helped the No. 51 team get off to a strong start in the owner's portion of the Round of 8. The young driver started seventh and then made his way through the field to contend for the win in the closing laps. After one race in the Round of 8, the No. 51 team is ranked third in the owner's points standings with 2064 markers, 22 above the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 6. The No. 51 team, which has earned five wins with owner-driver Kyle Busch behind the wheel and one win with veteran driver Greg Biffle at Texas Motor Speedway, will looking to bring home the organization's seventh owner's title. Overall across 17 starts the No. 51 team has two poles, 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes.
- Veteran crew chief Rudy Fugle leads the No. 51 team this season. Fugle has guided his team to four Owner's Championships (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017) as a crew chief at KBM, including combined Owner's/Driver's Championships with Erik Jones in 2015 and Christopher Bell in 2017. The New York native's drivers have combined for 28 wins, 22 poles, 66 top-five and 102 top-10 finishes across his 130 races calling the shots for the organization. North of the border at CTMP, Fugle's drivers have one win, Erik Jones in 2015, two top-five and four top-10 finishes across five starts at the 10-turn road course.
- CanTorque will adorn the hood of the No. 51. Founded in 2000, CanTorque Inc. is an Edmonton based designer and manufacturer of industrial bolting tools and accessories. Our range includes square drive hydraulic torque wrenches, low profile hydraulic torque wrenches, pneumatic torque wrenches, stud tensioning systems & calibration equipment. We've been a sponsor of Alex Tagliani since he rejoined IndyCar in 2008 and have worked with him in numerous series since then. More information can be found at www.cantorque.com. Also, on the side of the KBM Tundra are Canadian companies Spectra Premium and RONA.
Alex Tagliani, Driver Q&A
Are you excited to return to CTMP in a KBM Tundra?
"First of all, it's a fantastic opportunity. Thanks to Kyle and Rudy and the entire KBM team for the trust — driving this No. 51 very iconic truck up in Canada is really big for me. Hopefully we can bring the truck in Victory Lane and give the fans some excitement."
How does your experience at this track help you this weekend?
"Everything helps. I think the series is very competitive, they've come to that track a couple times and every team has improved their road course package. The drivers are using the simulator these days to get better at it, so knowing it and knowing all the little tricks and bits of the track, hopefully we can use it to our advantage and get a good result."
How bad do you want to get a Truck Series victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park?
"I've come so close so many times, I feel that track owes me a couple of wins. If we can have one in the truck it will make up for all of the bad luck that we've had. Everybody seems to be tired of second place and I am one of those guys and hopefully this weekend will be the right one."
What does it mean to race a truck in Canada sponsored by three Canadian companies?
"Timing is everything and showing up in Canada and showing up in Canada in a truck that is red, black and white and having three Canadian companies on the truck, one that has been with me for so many years, CanTorque, and they're manufacturing tools right now so great timing for that. Spectra Premium having their high-performance radiator in the truck, it's amazing. And RONA as well, we are bringing some contest winners to have a VIP experience with the KBM team. Thanks to all these sponsors and, like I said, hopefully everyone is going to come out of there waving the Canadian flag."
Alex Tagliani Career Highlights
- Overall across 80 career Pinty's Series starts Tagliani has collected nine wins, including a win in last year's race at CTMP, 10 poles, 35 top-five and 55 top-10 finishes. He finished second in the championship standings in 2018 and third in 2016.
- The veteran driver also has eight NASCAR Xfinity Series road course starts with four top-five and five top-10 finishes and four poles.
- In addition to his NASCAR starts, Tagliani has 131 starts and one win in the CART Series and 74 IndyCar Series starts, as well as multiple starts in other series. He won the pole for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 and overall across eight starts in the event produced a best result of 10th in 2010.
Alex Tagliani's No. 51 CanTorque Tundra:
KBM-061: The No. 51 CanTorque team will unload chassis KBM-061 for Sunday's NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series event. This chassis is brand new.
- KBM drivers have collected one win, 65 laps led, six top-five and eight top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.6 across 17 starts at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
- Erik Jones captured KBM's lone victory north of the border in the 2015 event.
- KBM holds the Gander Truck Series records for most career wins (74) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). In addition to collecting a series-record six Owner's Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers; Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- The No. 51 is the winningest number in the KBM stable with 30 trips to victory lane in Gander Trucks action
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Rudolph Full Throttle at Airborne
Erick Rudolph too much for Lance Willix, passes late to win at Plattsburgh Airborne SpeedwayPLATTSBURGH, NY – August 20, 2019 – Home-track hero Lance Willix II passed two of the best DIRTcar 358 Modified Series drivers Erick Rudolph and Mike Mahaney on a mid-race restart. Willix battled tooth and nail until a lap 90 red flag incident stopped the race. On the restart, Erick Rudolph got the better of No. 31 and powered on to visit Victory Lane. Tim Fuller battled hard inside the top five all race and finished on the final step of the podium. Erick Rudolph and Mike Mahaney brought the thirty-car field to the green flag. Mahaney got the initial jump on the outside and powered away from Rudolph. The No. 25R battled back and traded blows with Mahaney. Then on a restart, Plattsburgh regular Lance Willix II passed both of the dueling leaders in one shot. The No. 31 used a unique racing line where he entered the corners low and hooked the left side tires on the edge of the track. This seemed to rotate the car and allow Willix to get on the throttle earlier than Rudolph or Mahaney. Willix kept up his pace and maintained the lead until a dramatic incident on the front stretch brought out the red flag. As witnessed, Kyle Dingwalll made contact with the front stretch wall and veered in front of oncoming race traffic. Several cars, including Steve Bernier and Jessey Mueller, slid through the infield, which caused Mueller's car to flip and land on top of Bernier. The high level of safety standards mandated by DIRTcar were put to the test and once again all drivers walked away. The battle at the front was far from over. "We had a lot of time to sit there and think. I didn't know if I'd have an opportunity to pass him," said Rudolph. Throughout the race the implement tires at the inside of the track get clipped and can change the preferred racing line depending on where they move, When the field went back to green on lap 90, Rudolph had to make a calculated move. "That tire down there was in the infield for a long time and it had everyone glued to the bottom. It moved up a bit and made the track racy again. We were able to make the move around him [Willix]," Rudolph said of his racing-winning move. That move made Rudolph and his team $4,000 richer. This was the second time the No. 25R has visited Victory Lane in Series competition in 2019. Plattsburgh still a very new track for Rudolph. He noted "I've only been here three times. I did a race here one time when it was asphalt. Track time helps anywhere you go." Rudolph is heading to Cornwall Motor Speedway for their Race for the Cure 150 DIRTcar 358 Modified $12,000-to-win race on Thursday, August 22. The DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series is in action as well. It's not how Lance Willix II wanted this one to end but a second-place finish with the best DIRTcar 358 Modified drivers around is a great accomplishment "This is the way we want to end the year. On a high note. We have momentum going into these big races at the end of the year. To be able to compete with Erick and Timmy and all these guys, it means something to us," said Willix. Tim Fuller powered his way up to finish in third. "I had the second-best car on the track. Erick and Lance did a really good job. It was a long race and fortunately, we ended up in the top three which is good any time you get into what of these deals," Fuller said in Victory Lane. The Billy Whittaker Cars Fast-Time Award winner for Plattsburgh Airborne Speedway was Steve Bernier. Unfortunately, Bernier's car was heavily damaged in the red flag melee on the front stretch resulting in a DNF. A driver in a randomly determined finishing position is awarded one free Hoosier Racing Tire. Michael Parent, on the virtue of finishing in seventh position, is awarded the free tire certificate from Hoosier. The next DIRTcar 358 Modified Series race is at Can-Am Speedway on September 7. FEATURE (100 LAPS) 1. Erick Rudolph 2. Lance Willix II 3. Tim Fuller 4. Jordan McCreadie 5. Mike Mahaney 6. Mike Maresca 7. Michael Parent 8. David Marcuccilli 9. Rocky Warner 10. Corey Wheeler 11. Demetrios Drellos 12. Ryan Bartlett 13. Mike Stacey 14. Yan Bussiere 15. Matt Woodruff 16. Jeremy Roy 17. Matt Depew 18. Dany Gagne 19. Kyle Dingwall 20. Steve Bernier 21. Danny Johnson 22. Jessey Mueller 23. Mathieu Boisvert 24. Preston Forbes 25. Louie Jackson Jr. 26. Chris Raabe 27. Mario Clair 28. Ronnie Davis III 29. Perry Francis 30. Ran McLean (Visited 95 times, 95 visits today) |
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