After spending a couple of weeks in the Midwest region of Canada, the NASCAR Canada Series is returning to Ontario to tackle a brand-new road course: Calabogie Motorsports Park, a course well-known for its long technical layout and high-speed corners.
It’s just the second road course event of the 2025 NASCAR Canada Series campaign, which follows three straight races on short ovals, won by three different drivers – DJ Kennington, Marc-Antoine Camirand, and Kevin Lacroix.
With a mix of racetracks (and different race winners) to begin the season, the championship fight remains virtually wide-open between several heavy-hitters, including Marc-Antoine Camirand, the driver of the No. 96 GM Paillé Chevrolet – the only multi-time winner in the NASCAR Canada Series in 2025.
After his controversial triumph in Saskatoon earlier on this month, Kevin Lacroix is currently sitting in the runner-up position in NASCAR Canada Series point standings, one point behind Camirand. DJ Kennington is third (-3), with Andrew Ranger fourth (-12), and Ryan Vargas rounding out the top five (-15).
The 3.138-mile road course has provided some incredible action already this weekend, and despite its incredible length – measuring longer in distance than any road course on any of NASCAR’s National or Touring Series – has provided some of the closest margins seen all season long.
During Saturday’s practice session from Calabogie, Ontario, rookie driver Connor Bell jumped to the top of the speed charts by a mere 0.004 seconds over championship points leader Marc-Antoine Camirand, putting his No. 3 Ed Hakonson Racing Chevrolet above all others on the scoring pylon.
It wasn’t quite as close when it came to qualifying, but Gary Klutt, a veteran road racer in the NASCAR Canada Series, managed to put himself at the top of the charts BARELY for Sunday’s event, leading Andrew Ranger by 0.042 seconds.
“We’ll see,” polesitter Gary Klutt said, asked about going for the sweep. “Pole doesn’t mean much here, it’s going to be a world of difference [today]. You’re going to see times slow down, you’re going to see tires really wear, there’s definitely some strategy. It was fun today to go rip a lap off, but I don’t know how much it means for tomorrow, so we’re just going to keep our head down and keep working.”
The 32-year-old driver will lead the 24-car field to the green flag in Sunday’s event at Calabogie Motorsports Park, his sixth pole in the NASCAR Canada Series. Andrew Ranger, a full-timer in the series, will start alongside with Marc-Antoine Camirand in third place.
“I’m very happy about my team, first, they did an excellent job, the car was really fast in qualifying, so I was able to make a pretty good lap,” said Andrew Ranger, second-place starter for Sunday’s event. “I missed the pole by a little bit, just overall I’m very happy about the No. 27 GM Paillé. I think it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, really hot, so we need to survive there.”
Alex Tagliani, one of the most accomplished road racers in the NASCAR Canada Series field, will be rolling from the fourth position in his No. 80 Chevrolet owned by Donald Theetge. Connor Bell, the rookie racing for Ed Hakonson Racing, will start from fifth.
Alex Guenette, Sam Fellows, Ryan Vargas, Malcolm Strachan, and Simon Charbonneau will round out the top-10 starters for the 50-lap contest.
One thing that will end up being important in Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Canada Series event at Calabogie Motorsports Park is the tire wear, as drivers are expecting significant fall-off throughout the course of a run on Sunday, something the NASCAR Canada Series doesn’t typically experience.
“It’s my first time, actually, to feel something like that, the asphalt is different, and you know what, we need to make sure we are there at the end, so we need to save our tires, save our stuff, pit stop, so we don’t know the strategy yet, but it’s going to be interesting tomorrow.”
Ryan Vargas, in his rookie season competing in the NASCAR Canada Series for DJ Kennington Racing, didn’t get the opportunity to participate in the test earlier this weekend, due to travel issues, but before hitting the racetrack, has talked to just about everybody he could.
“From what I heard [the test session] was chaotic, so it wasn’t much track time anyways, but the biggest thing I’ve heard from everybody is grip, grip, grip, or a lack thereof, I should say,” Vargas said. “Apparently, it’s like a cheese grater, DJ [Kennington’s] been telling me all about it, how it’s almost like a little jagged edges out there, the surface, so it’s really gonna be learning the track, getting up to pace, I feel plenty confident in this team and everybody who is setting this car up, we were really good at CTMP, didn’t get the result I felt we deserved that weekend.”
Throughout the weekend, Vargas has picked up the pace, going from being 16th and 13th in the series’ two practice sessions on Saturday, to qualifying a respectable eighth place in his No. 28 Critical Path Security Dodge, within a second of polesitter Gary Klutt.
“Coming here, with a little bit more of an even playing field, where everybody is kind of going in like me, being fresh. You know, I’ve shown up to every race this year having less laps than everybody, but at least this weekend we’re on that same playing field.”
Another driver to watch for in Sunday’s event is Connor Bell, a local driver making his NASCAR Canada Series debut in the No. 3 for Ed Hakonson Racing. The 19-year-old is destined to have quite the advantage come the drop of the green flag, with his experience around the circuit.
“Luckily for me, we’ve done a lot of testing in a test car here, I’d say I’ve been out around six or seven times so far leading up to this event, so we’ve got a lot of experience, especially with the tire wear and stuff like that,” Bell said. “The boys at Ed Hakonson Racing prepared a fantastic car.”
Other drivers to watch for Sunday’s event, scheduled to run at 2:10 pm ET, include NASCAR Canada Series winners Alex Guenette and LP Dumoulin, as well as Sam Fellows, JP Bergeron, and the host of drivers making their series debut this weekend: Jeff Cavanaugh, Geoff Johnson, Todd Musker, and Rom Tomlinson.
Kevin Lacroix, the championship points leader, is going to be one to watch when the race goes green, after a broken shifter in qualifying made it so that the No. 74 Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet couldn’t get on the racetrack, leaving him to start in dead last.
The NASCAR Canada 150 will run on Sunday, July 27 at 2:10 pm ET. Coverage of the event will be tape-delayed on REVTV. Date TBA.
