By: Tagliani Autosport
September 19 2016
Montreal, Quebec - Alex Tagliani finished eighth on Sunday in the 12th and final round of the NASCAR Pinty's Series held at Kawartha Speedway in Fraserville, Ontario. Starting 10th, the Lachenaie, Quebec, driver did not perform to his standards and lost six positions in the early goings. By lap 50, he was back in 12th place, but was given a one-lap penalty for pitting outside his pit box. He was then listed 15th overall.
As the first driver to be one lap down when the second caution of the race occurred on lap 82, Tagliani got a free pass that enabled him to get back on the lead lap. Running off sequence, Tag moved into first place on lap 149 when the leaders pitted. Seventeen laps later, the EpiPen-CanTorque Chevrolet lost its momentum and slid down the field on old tires that could not maintain the pace.
"This has not been our best outing of the season," Tagliani said. "In our first stint, we had problems with our set of tires. In our first pit stop, the team decided to change all four tires. We then had to run 175 laps with them. Ultimately, this did not work out in our favour even though we led the race at some point, but we had to try a different strategy, Overall, it did help us to secure third place in the Driver Championship and second in the Team Owner Championship."
The Kawartha 250, a 250-lap race (93.75 miles/151.06 kms) around the 0.375-mile banked asphalt oval was won by Jason Hathaway of St. Thomas, Ontario, who scored his ninth career win. He crossed the finish line ahead of rookie Cayden Lapcevich of Grimsby, Ontario. Alex Labbé of Victoriaville, Québec, D. J. Kennington, also from St. Thomas and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin of Trois-Rivières round out the top five.
Seventeen drivers started the race and 14 crossed the finish line, with seven on the lead lap. The race was under caution four times for 33 laps.
Lapcevich only had to start the race to win the NASCAR Pinty's Series driver championship, but he won his title in grand style with a second-place finish to become the youngest champion in the NASCAR history. Runner up was Andrew Ranger, followed by Tagliani, five points behind Ranger.
Tagliani's Best-ever Season In The NASCAR Canadian Division
Tagliani concludes the 2016 season in third place with 446 point. The 2016 season has been his best so far, winning three times, collecting two third-place finishes, a fourth, a fifth a sixth, an eighth and a ninth in 11 starts. He missed the season opener at the CTMP in May to compete at the famed Indy 500.
"Overall, we still had a very good season thanks to the team who always gave me a very fast car," continued Tagliani. "Even though we missed the opener, we were able to get back into the driver championship hunt until we went to Riverside Speedway (Nova Scotia on August 20). Unfortunately, two consecutive incidents put an end to our championship aspiration. At Riverside, we led the most race laps, but an incident between two lapped cars ahead of me end ended any hopes of winning the race when one of the spinning cars destroyed my front end.
"Starting from the pole in the following race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, we encountered power steering problems while in the lead and we lost five laps in the pits to repair. That was it as far as the Driver championship was concerned. On the positive side, the EpiPen-CanTorque Chevrolet won three races and we were always very competitive."
In 45 NASCAR Canada Series starts, Tagliani has five wins, seven poles, 17 top-five and 28 top-ten finishes.
TV coverage for the Kawartha 250 will be aired on TSN on Sunday, October 2 at 12:30 p.m. ET.
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