The only thing that Treyten Lapcevich needed to accomplish in Sunday’s NASCAR Pinty’s Series event in order to capture the series championship, was to take the green flag in the Pinty’s Fall Brawl at Delaware Speedway.
So, that’s exactly what he did. Then, the 19-year-old driver put an exclamation point on an already historic NASCAR Pinty’s Series campaign with his seventh victory of the season.
Lapcevich, driving the No. 20 Delta Bingo Chevrolet, was a contender throughout the entirety of Sunday’s 250-lap season-finale at Delaware Speedway, where he primarily had to fight against his 22 Racing teammate Kyle Steckly.
Steckly, making his eighth start in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, launched from the pole position on Sunday and led the race’s opening nine laps in the No. 22 APC Chevrolet, holding steady and at times even outrunning the eventual race winner.
The two drivers would remain locked into a hard-fought battle throughout most of the race, trading the lead back and forth a couple of times, until Steckly, who captured the APC Late Model Series title on Saturday, ran into issues with his Chevrolet.
Just shy of the race’s halfway point, Steckly would be forced to come to pit road under green-flag conditions – while leading the race, no less – for what ended up being a rear suspension issue, ultimately ending the 18-year-old driver’s afternoon.
With his main source of competition sidelined, Lapcevich was untouchable, except for a fleeting moment on each restart when a driver would have a shot to get the lead from the season’s dominant driver.
Lapcevich would lead 150 of the final 151 laps in Sunday’s event, on his way to claiming another victory in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, the ninth of his career, and his seventh on the season, which would net him the 2023 championship.
Leading a race-high 166 laps on Sunday, the Grimsby, Ontario native made history with his 1,149 laps led this year, the most in a single season of the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, beating out team owner Scott Steckly, who led 1,090 in 2015.
Donald Theetge, after suffering a mechanical problem in the middle portion of Sunday’s event, rebounded to finish in the runner-up position, finishing 4.127 seconds behind the eventual race-winner.
DJ Kennington finished another NASCAR Pinty’s Series season in third place, while Andrew Ranger and Kevin Lacroix completed the top five. Alex Guenette, Rookie of The Year Thomas Nepveu, JP Bergeron, and Dexter Stacey finished sixth through ninth.
Noah Gragson, making a one-off in the series for Kasey Jones Racing, piloted the No. 30 Dodge to a 10th-place result, on the lead lap, after struggling throughout the afternoon.
As the checkered flag falls on the season, Treyten Lapcevich finished the 14-race schedule with a 61-point advantage over Marc-Antoine Camirand, who will finish inside the top-two in point standings for the second straight year.
Alex Tagliani came home third in points, while LP Dumoulin and Kevin Lacroix ended up fourth and fifth. DJ Kennington, Alex Guenette, JP Bergeron, Larry Jackson, and Andrew Ranger rounded out the top-10.
