Kevin Lacroix wins ICAR as MA Camirand Closes on Pintys Title

DJ Kennington fell to 23 points back as Alex Tagliani and Lacroix run out of time.

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Circuit ICAR remains the personal playground for Kevin Lacroix in NASCAR Pinty’s Series competition.

Perhaps call it hometown cooking as the former Mirabel Regional Airport is only 20 minutes away from where Lacroix grew up in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, but the family owned No. 74 now has three consecutive wins on the only tarmac course on the schedule.

Lacroix dominated the race, leading 64 of 70 circuits, to score his 14th career NASCAR victory and 14th on a road or street course. It was also the fourth overall time that Lacroix won at Circuit ICAR.

"Even without qualifying because of the rain and starting fifth, we knew we were fast," Lacroix said. "We would have had a shot at pole if we qualified. The longer I was back there, the unhappier I got and wanted to lead the race. That's what we did and we practice well and knew what we were capable of."

It wasn’t without some drama as Lacroix needed to hold off fellow Quebecois and three-time series champion Andrew Ranger on a restart with 15 to go. Ranger drove deep into the first corner, momentarily taking the lead but lost it by the end of a lap around the near one-mile autocross course.

Lacroix ultimately won the race by 1.98 seconds over championship leader Marc-Antoine Camirand.

Camirand, meanwhile, enjoyed a very successful points day over his closest championship pursuers, DJ Kennington in 12th and Alex Tagliani in 6th with only two races remaining this season at Mosport and Delaware Speedway respectively.

Camirand enters the final stretch with a 23-point advantage over Kennington and 25 ahead of Tagliani. Lacroix is now 26 points out but isn’t sure he is going to make that back up.

"We’ve had such bad luck the past two races," Lacroix said. "It put us further back there. So, it was just important to win here, and give us momentum for the final two races and try to win there too. It keeps us in sight. We never wish bad luck on other drivers, but we're going to need it if that's going to work out for us."

Of note, after finishing eighth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona on Friday, Alex Labbe flew back home to Quebec to participate in the race and finished fourth from a dead last starting spot of 23rd. It was his first top five in the series since 2019.

NASCAR Pinty’s Series
Circuit ICAR
August 27 2022