Search
Close this search box.

Partner

Marc-Antoine Camirand Comes Out on Top in Hard-Fought Battle With Lapcevich at Chaudiere

Marc-Antoine Camirand Treyten Lapcevich rivalry 2023 NASCAR Pinty's Series
Marc-Antoine Camirand Treyten Lapcevich rivalry 2023 NASCAR Pinty's Series
Marc-Antoine Camirand outdueled Treyten Lapcevich for the win in Saturday’s NASCAR Pinty’s Series Bud Light 300. Screengrab from FloRacing broadcast

Treyten Lapcevich, who entered the day with two wins in the opening two races of the 2023 NASCAR Pinty’s Series season, dominated Saturday’s Bud Light 300 at Autodrome Chaudiere. However, while Lapcevich dominated, defending NASCAR Pinty’s Series champion Marc-Antoine Camirand, and Lapcevich’s now budding rival, came out on top.

In a spirited battle for the win over the last five laps, which was set up by a late-race restart thanks to a spin by Thomas Nepveu in Turn 1 with roughly 11 laps to go, Camirand executed some textbook short track moves to snag the lead away from Lapcevich.

“On that last restart, I was surprised that [Lapcevich] got the outside groove,” Camirand said after the race. “My car was really good on the bottom. I am really proud to get my first win of the 2023 season.”

As Lapcevich fought back with under five laps to go, Camirand would apply just enough contact to stall out the run for Lapcevich. The 44-year-old took the 19-year-old to school in the closing laps on Saturday evening.

While Camirand did have a couple of rubs on the track with Lapcevich in the closing laps, Camirand says that he and Lapcevich are nowhere near even after Lapcevich booted Camirand out of the lead on the last lap at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“No, actually. I passed him clean. So, I still have one shot on him,” Camirand chuckled. “Maybe later in the season.”

For Camirand, he was just proud of his team for fighting back. They had to swap to a backup car prior to qualifying, and after recording the 11th-place starting spot, the team would get to working on the car to dial it in during the race.

Camirand kept the team alive as they reached the halfway break, and then the team was able to make the proper adjustments to get the car where it needed to be.

“The first part of the race, the car was really, really tight. So, at the break, we did some adjustments and the car was really strong after and I was catching up to the leader,” Camirand said.

With the victory, his sixth over the course of his 75-race NASCAR Pinty’s Series career, Camirand remains runner-up to Lapcevich in the series point standings. Both drivers have finished inside the top five in all three races to start the season.

Lapcevich has yet to finish outside the top two this season, and he was as close as it gets to starting the 2023 campaign off with three-consecutive wins. This will without a doubt be an intense battle throughout the entire course of the season between both of these drivers.

And Camirand has already started playing mental games with Lapcevich by publicly warning that he still owes Lapcevich a payback shot at some point in the season.

Payback pending, or not, with his 273 laps led on Saturday, Lapcevich has now led an incredible 521 laps out of a possible 601 this season. It’s been a truly dominant season so far. But even with how dominant he’s been, Lapcevich only carries a nine-point lead over Camirand into the next race, which will take place at Eastbound Speedway in Newfoundland.

Camirand won the inaugural Pinty’s event at that facility a season ago.

Behind the one-two power punch of Camirand and Lapcevich at the front of the field on Saturday was Raphael Lessard, who finished third in relief of Dexter Stacey. Stacey started the race, but made way for Lessard at the mid-way point of the event due to an arm injury.

Kevin Lacroix came home in fourth and L.P. Dumoulin rounded out the top-five finishers.

In addition to the thrilling finish between two of the best drivers in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series today, there were a lot of scary moments in Saturday’s race.

Three cars in total burst into flames throughout the 300-lap contest.

Glen Styers was the first to experience his car combusting, as his No. 0 machine stopped running on Lap 122. Andrew Ranger joined Styers on Lap 132. And Donald Theetge, who actually led this race at one point, fell out when his car burst into flames on Lap 190.

Another wild accident happened between J.P. Bergeron and Wallace Stacey on Lap 214. The two drivers got together a couple of times, and the second time they did, it ended with Stacey launching over the hood of Bergeron’s car.


NASCAR Pinty’s Series Bud Light 300 Race Results

PosNo.DriverSponsor / ManufacturerLapsDiff
196Marc-Antoine CamirandGM PaillŽ/Chevrolet Canada Chevrolet300
220Treyten LapcevichFBM/Delta Bingo/Leading Edge Chevrolet3000.369
392Dexter StaceyRecap Chevrolet3000.613
474Kevin LacroixNAPA Sythentic Motor Oil/Valvoline Dodge3001.088
547L.P. DumoulinWeatherTech/Bellemare Dodge3001.964
617D.J. KenningtonCastrol Edge/Spark Power/CIM Metals Dodge3002.278
718Alex TaglianiSt. HuberVNTN/Qwick Wick/Genatec Chevrolet3004.999
89Brandon WatsonLeland/GMS/RGC/Shear Metal Products Chevrolet30012.647
984Larry JacksonE3/O'Neil Electric/eBay Motors/Wonder Dodge2991 Lap
103Alex GuenetteGM PaillŽ/ASSA ABLOY Chevrolet2991 Lap
1187Sam FellowsAER Manufacting/GM PaillŽ Chevrolet2982 Laps
1298Malcolm StrachanCurb Records/CF Realty/DarkhorseTrailers Chevrolet2964 Laps
131J.P. BergeronProlon Controls/Rousseau Metals Ford2946 Laps
1424Thomas Nepveu *Evirum/Home Hardware Ford28713 Laps
1523Brandon McFarlane *Oceanex/Miller Lite/Make-A-Wish Chevrolet28416 Laps
1612Mathieu KingsburyDuroking/Albert Viau/Galarneau Dodge25743 Laps
1766Wallace StaceyK-Fibre Optic Chevrolet20991 Laps
1856Josh Collins *Wing 'N' It/Auto Direct USNMake-A-Wish Chevrolet20199 Laps
1980Donald TheetgeGroupe Theetge/XPN Chevrolet190110 Laps
2027Andrew RangerGM PaillŽ/Chevrolet Canada Chevrolet132168 Laps
210Glenn StyresGSR/Ohsweken Sp¾dway/Chantarellie/WMI Chevrolet122178 Laps
share it
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Post

Ricky Stenhouse Jr officially wins YellaWood 500 at Talladega after post-race inspection 2024 JTG Daugherty Racing
Inspection Complete: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Officially Takes Talladega Win
GettyImages-2177150435
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Surges to Talladega Victory in Three-Wide Photo Finish
ricky stenhouse william byron brad keselowski photo finish talladega NASCAR NASCAR Cup Series
Video: Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Wins Talladega in Three-Wide Photo Finish with Keselowski, Byron
TalladegaBigOne
Video: Austin Cindric Turned from Race-Lead to Trigger Massive 28-Car Accident at Talladega
BlaneYWreck
Video: Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain Crash Hard Coming to End of Stage 2 at Talladega
Daniel Suarez spins on Lap 13 at Talladega Superspeedway YellaWood 500 2024 video highlight
Video: Daniel Suarez Goes for Spin While Trying to Blend into Pack at Talladega

Join Our Newsletter

Ready to have NASCAR news hand-delivered to your email daily?

Related Article