NASCAR Pinty’s Series News & Notes: An Early Season Championship Favorite is Emerging in Marc-Antoine Camirand
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NASCAR Pinty's Series News & Notes:
An Early Season Championship Favorite is Emerging in Marc-Antoine Camirand
Four races into the 2022 NASCAR Pinty's Series season and a clear championship favourite has emerged.
Marc-Antoine Camirand (No. 22 GM Paillé Chevrolet) has taken the series by storm with his new GM Paillé Racing Team, currently leading the standings by 10 points.
The St. Leonard d'Aston, Que., native has had one of the cars to beat in every race but only one win to show for it.
"We have shown that we can run up front since the beginning of the season," Camirand said. "I'm so happy for my team at Camirand Performance that has been working so hard. I couldn't be prouder of them."
Camirand has led the most laps at all three oval races (203 of 252 at Sunset Speedway, 92 of 250 at Autodrome Chaudiere and 138 of 225 at Eastbound International Speedway). He finally captured his first checkered flag of the season at Eastbound; he finished fourth at Sunset after an Overtime incident and was runner-up at Chaudiere.
With attention turned to the streets of Toronto, Camirand has some unfinished business to take care of.
He was in contention for the 2019 win, the last time the series raced at the track. Camirand took the lead from Alex Tagliani (No. 18 Viagra/St-Hubert/QwickWick Chevrolet) on a late restart but wrecked just a few turns later before getting back to the start/finish line. Tagliani went on to win in Overtime while Camirand was resigned to a 16th-place finish.
"I want to go there and finish what we started in 2019," Camirand said. "Let's do it!"
While Camirand's only road course performance of 2022 is also his worst finish – 14th at CTMP – It isn't quite what it seems. After leading the first ten laps of the race a punctured tire forced Camirand to pit early, taking him off the lead lap.
Camirand then fought his way back up into fifth, but with five to go, ran out of fuel, eventually coming to a stop along the straightaway.
"We were the fastest on track at that time," Camirand said after the race. "I got back on the lead lap, but from that moment, we were hoping for a caution so I could pit for fuel. If a caution would have happened at that time, I'm sure that we had a shot for the win."
Based on his early season dominance, expect Camirand to have his shot at the Toronto win to finish what he started.
Look for series veterans to reemerge at Toronto
The NASCAR Pinty's Series trip to Canada's largest city also brings the largest spotlight of the year. And when the lights are brightest, the stars shine.
There have been six Toronto races in series history and Andrew Ranger (No. 27 GM Paillé Chevrolet), Alex Tagliani and Kevin Lacroix (No. 74 Lacroix Tuning/La Boulonnerie Dodge) – three of the series' winningest drivers – are the only winners.
Ranger has a series-leading three wins in Toronto including the first two races in 2010 and '11 before the series took a five-year hiatus from the circuit. He followed that with a thrilling win over Tagliani in '18, a race that Tagliani had thoroughly dominated.
Ranger could use a strong Toronto finish; he currently sits 13th in the standings. His Chaudiere win is his only top-10 finish this season. In six Toronto starts, Ranger has three wins and two runner-up finishes.
Tagliani, seventh in the standings, has two Toronto wins – 2016 and 2019. Lacroix won in 2017.
Twenty-five cars entered for the Grand Prix of Toronto
The return to a full season and traditional cross-country schedule has come with the added bonus of a higher car count across the board.
Twenty-five cars are entered in Friday's race, the highest Toronto car count since 2016.
"We've been really encouraged by both the car counts and quality of cars and drivers that have participated so far this season," said Cherie Putnam, NASCAR Pinty's Series Director. "Most importantly, our drivers have put on four tremendous races for our fans, and we expect this weekend's race in Toronto to continue that trend."
Each race this season has seen higher car counts. There were 25 cars at CTMP, the highest since 2018. The race at Autodrome Chaudière set a track record with 23 cars.
Race Grand Prix of Toronto
Date / Start Time Friday, June 15, 2022 / 4 p.m. ET
Track / Location Exhibition Place (Toronto, ON)
TV TSN: TBA / RDS2 TBA
Live Stream Canada: TSN.ca / TSN app
USA: FloRacing
Fans can stay connected to the NASCAR Pinty's Series – and all things NASCAR in Canada – at www.nascar.ca, on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram.
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