Pinty’s Stat Advance: Edmonton

Pinty’s Stat Advance: Edmonton

Analyzing the Luxxur 300 at Edmonton International Raceway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2017 NASCAR Pinty’s Series returns for the fourth straight year to Edmonton International Raceway for the Luxxur 300. Below is a statistical look at the performance of the series at the track and selected drivers:

Luxxur 300 Setup:
• Kevin Lacroix leads all drivers with three wins this season while Alex Labbe and Cayden Lapcevich each scored their second wins of the season during the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 100s at Wyant Group Raceway earlier this week.
• Ranger won the inaugural race at Edmonton (2014) with Alex Tagliani scoring the win on the oval last year as the only previous race winners entered in the race.
• Kevin Lacroix leads the championship standings by just two points over Alex Labbe.
• Western Canadian drivers Noel Dowler, Ian Admiraal, and Jason Hankewich are slated to make their third starts of the week in the western swing.
• Since 2009, the eventual series champion has 12 wins and two runner-up finishes in 18 races in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series’ annual West Coast swing.

At Edmonton International Raceway:
• Opened in 1968 as a dirt track.
• Was paved for the first time in 1995, and for a second time just prior to the NASCAR Pinty’s Series’ inaugural race at the facility in 2014.
• Has been a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly racing member track since 2005.

Edmonton International Raceway Data
Race #: 8 of 13 Track Layout: .25-mile asphalt oval
Banking/Straights: 4 degrees Banking/Turns: 7 degrees
Race Length: 300 laps (75 miles – 120.7 kilometers)
TV Coverage: TSN – Saturday, Aug. 12, 1 p.m. ET; RDS – Friday, Sept. 1, 8:30 p.m. ET

Qualifying/Race Data
2016 Race Winner: Alex Tagliani
Race Record: Scott Steckly, Dodge, 44.836 mph, 1 hr. 40 mins. 22 secs.
2016 Pole Winner: Kevin Lacroix
Qualifying Record: Alex Tagliani, Dodge, 71.919 mph, 12.514 seconds, July 11, 2014

Notebook
• Kevin Lacroix has won three races this season and enters as the points leader for the NPS entering Edmonton.
• Andrew Ranger won the inaugural Alberta Has New Energy 300 in 2014 passing pole sitter Alex Tagliani on Lap 269 and holding on in a green-white-checkered finish to score the win on the short track.
• Dodge has been the winning manufacturer for both NPS events at the facility in 2014 and 2015, while Alex Tagliani won last year driving a Chevrolet.

Active Category Leaders at Edmonton:
Wins
1. Andrew Ranger … 1
Alex Tagliani … 1

Poles
1. Alex Tagliani … 1
Kevin Lacroix … 1

Top Fives
1. LP Dumoulin … 3
2. DJ Kennington … 2

Top 10s
1. LP Dumoulin … 3
DJ Kennington … 3
Andrew Ranger … 3

Laps Led
1. Alex Tagliani … 481
2. Andrew Ranger … 48
3. Mark Dilley … 43

Laps Completed
1. LP Dumoulin … 916 (all)
2. Andrew Ranger … 916
3. DJ Kennington … 910

Starts
1. Seven drivers … 7 (all)

Select Driver Highlights:
Mark Dilley (No. 02 Johnsonville/Leland/Dickies Ford)
• Has three wins, three poles, 36 top fives and 59 top 10s in 102 career NASCAR Pinty’s Series starts.
• All of his wins and poles have come on ovals, where he has 47 top 10s and an average finish of ninth in 74 starts.
• Has participated in all three previous events at Edmonton International Raceway, where he’s posted one top-five finish and an average finish of 13th.

Noel Dowler (No. 53 MFP/Empire Mechanical Dodge)
• The Sherwood Park, Alberta native has made 54 series starts with one top-five and 22 top-10 finishes.
• Finished third at Barrie in 2012 for his best finish to date.
• Has made all three starts with one top-10 finish at EIR.

J.F. Dumoulin (No. 04 Spectra Premium/Bernier/BellemareDodge)
• Has six top-five and 25 top 10s in 43 career NPS starts.
• 2017 will mark the second season J.F. will compete full-time in the series. He competed in all 11 events in 2015 in his best season to date finishing the year with four top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
• Has made one start at the oval at Edmonton finishing 11th in 2015.

L.P. Dumoulin (No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge)
• The 2014 NPS Champion and 2011 Rookie of the Year has four wins, one pole, 34 top fives and 51 top 10s in 78 career starts.
• Enters this week third in the season standings with three top-five and four top-10s finishes this season.
• Is the only driver to finish in the top five in all three previous races at EIR with an average finish of second.

D.J. Kennington (No. 17 Castrol Edge Dodge)
• The 2010 and 2012 NPS champion maintains series records for top fives (81) and top 10s (107), and is the only driver to start each of the 128 all-time events.
• Ranks second in series history in wins (19), laps led (2,062) and ranks fifth in poles (11).
• Sits sixth in points after five races with two top-five and four top-10 finishes so far this season.
• Has two top-five and three top-10 finishes in all three previous races at EIR. His best finish to date was fourth in 2015.

Gary Klutt (No. 59 Pioneer Family Pools/PoolSuppliesCanada.ca Dodge)
• Has a win, two poles and 22 top 10s in 33 career NPS starts. He won the pole and his lone win in the 2015 season-opener at CTMP. His other pole came at Sunset Speedway also in 2015.
• He has two top-10 finishes in as many races at EIR with his best finish of ninth last year.

Alex Labbé (No. 32 Cam-Am/Kappa/Cyclops Gear/Lou’s BBQ Ford)
• Has three wins (First came at Chaudière – 2016) with five poles, 17 top fives and 23 top 10s in 34 career starts.
• Scored his second NPS race win race in the series’ return to Delaware Speedway.
• Labbé sits second the points standings two points behind leader Kevin Lacroix (300-298).
• He finished seventh in his first start at EIR last year.

Kevin Lacroix (No. 74 Bumper To Bumper/Total/Go Fast Dodge)
• Has four poles, seven wins, 12 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 25 career starts.
• Only driver to recorded two wins in seven starts during his rookie season in 2015. Won road races at Circuit ICAR and Circuit de Trois-Rivieres.
• Won from the pole at CTMP in last month’s season opener and enters this race winner of two races in a row series taking his second career win at Circuit ICAR three weeks ago and scoring his first win in Toronto. He also leads by points standings by two points (300-298) over Alex Labbé.
• Became the first driver in the history of the series to win a caution-free race last season at ICAR in his first start at the track. • He won his first pole award on an oval last year at EIR and finished 15th in his first start at the Edmonton track.

Cayden Lapcevich (No. 76 Fastline Motorsports Dodge)
• The defending NPS champion has five wins, 14 top-five, 20 top-10 and one pole in 25 career starts.
• Became the youngest champion in the history of the NPS last season at 16 years, 10 months and 16 days. He also became the youngest race winner in the history of the series with his victory at Wyant Group Raceway last July.
• Recently named a member of the NASCAR Next class highlighting young and up-and-coming talent within NASCAR.
• He finished third at EIR in his first start.

Andrew Ranger (No. 27 Mopar/Pennzoil Dodge)
• The 2007 and 2009 champion is the series’ all-time leader in wins at 22 and holds the record for the poles with 21. Has 55 top fives and 84 top 10s in 102 career starts.
• Finished second in last year’s final season standings.
• Currently holds the series’ record for consecutive wins at a track with three (ICAR, 2012-14; Trois-Rivieres, 2008-10).
• Scored his first pole award at the track last season and finished fifth. In his four other appearances at the track he’s registered finishes of eighth, sixth, fourth and third.

Alex Tagliani (No. 18 Lowes Canada/EpiPen/St.Hubert Dodge)
• Has five wins, eight poles and 19 top fives, 32 top 10s in 52 career NPS starts.
• Four of his five wins at have come on the ovals (Sunset Speedway 2015-16 and Edmonton 2008 & 2016). His lone road course win came last season in Toronto.
• Won the inaugural race at the Edmonton oval in 2014 and has scored top-10 in all three starts at the track.

Other Driver Notes
• Jamie Kryzcik has started all three previous races at EIR and finished fourth in this race last year for his first top-five finish in the series.
• The Alberta-based father-daughter team of Stefan and Destiny Klym will make their first starts at EIR on Saturday.

Up To Speed:
• The 2017 season is the second for series sponsor Pinty’s and the 11th overall for the Canadian-based NASCAR division.
• The 2017 schedule features 13 races at 12 different tracks across five provinces and featured a return to Delaware Speedway for the first time since 2013 earlier this season.
• Quebec native Kevin Lacroix won from the pole at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in May for his third career series win.
• Alex Labbé made Quebec drivers two-for-two this season after he won the CHOKO/Fast Eddie 250 at Delaware Speedway for his second career series victory.
• Defending series champion and current NASCAR Next member Cayden Lapcevich took the lead late from Alex Labbé to score his first win of the season at Autodrome Chaudière. • Kevin Lacroix used some muscle to make the pass in NASCAR overtime to score his second win of the season and second at Circuit ICAR. He won there during his rookie season in 2015.
• Kevin Lacroix took advantage of some contact between contenders early in the race and withstood a late challenge by Marc-Antoine Camirand before he also crashed out of the race to win his second consecutive series race and third of the season in the race in Toronto. • Alex Labbe held off D.J. Kennington in NASCAR OT to become the second multi-race winner of the season winning the first of the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 100s.
• Cayden Lapcevich joined Alex Labbe and Kevin Lacroix as a repeat winner taking the second race of the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 100s at Wyant Group Raceway.