Brett Moffitt won the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, with Canadian Alex Tagliani of Montreal second and truck-series regular Ben Rhodes third.
Unlike previous truck races at CTMP, all of which ended in typical NASCAR fashion with bashing and crashing at the last corner of the last lap, Sunday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 was a tame affair with Moffitt winning by 5.160 seconds – a mile by road-racing standards.
Stewart Friesen of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a truck-series regular, finished seventh but held on to third place in the seven-race NASCAR playoffs after two races.
By winning the race Sunday, Moffitt extended his lead in the post-season standings.
Other Canadians: Raphael Lessard, Montreal, 10th; Gary Klutt, Halton Hills, 12th; D.J. Kennington, St. Thomas, 15th; Jason White, Sun Peaks, B.C., 20th; Dan Corcoran, Kingston, 27th.
Kevin Lacroix of Saint-Eustache, Que. (pictured above), won the NASCAR Pinty’s Series stock-car race earlier Sunday by “moving” Tagliani out of the way at that famous last corner. Marc-Antoine Camirand of Montreal was second and J.F. DuMoulin of Trois-Rivieres finished third in the TOTAL Quartz 200.
Tagliani, who finished fourth and came into the weekend with hopes of winning both races, was not pleased with the move and said afterward that Lacroix’s father had been vocally aggressive toward him on Saturday.
“He told me that if I touched any part of (son Kevin’s) car that I would not be able to drive in the trucks race because he would (hurt) me – and then his son goes and does that to me.”
Tagliani, a veteran IndyCar driver who now races full-time in the Pinty’s Series, sent out a warning of his own, suggesting that there are still three races left in the season and that he would remember what Lacroix had done.
For his part, earlier, Lacroix said there are “people I like to see in front of me and people I don’t like to see in front of me,” suggesting if he has to get rough that there are some drivers he’d prefer to bump-and-run than others.
“I was sorry it was Alex,” Lecroix said. “I didn’t like to do that but . . . he did it to me two years ago in Edmonton, so what goes around comes around.”
Both drivers suggested it would be a good idea if they agreed to talk to each other.
Saturday night in St. Louis, Takuma Sato won the IndyCar Series race. Both F1 and the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup took the weekend off.
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