Carpentier in 2007
Patrick Carpentier (born on August 13, 1971 in Ville Lasalle, Quebec) is a Canadian race car driver. He is best known for his career in the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series.
Open-Wheel Career[]
In 2005 Patrick drove for the Red Bull-sponsored team run by Eddie Cheever in the Indy Racing League. Prior to this he spent nearly a decade in the rival ChampCar series with Bettenhausen as a rookie, but subsequently in the team owned by Gerry Forsythe. In his early years he was prone to missing races through injuries, some of which originated off-track.
His first Champ Car victory came in 2001 at Michigan and he then took third in the championship in 2002. Patrick was 5th overall in a disappointing 2003 season (compared to title-winning team-mate Paul Tracy). This weakened his position within the team and he was briefly fired in 2004, later being reinstated in a third team car, allegedly because of his marketing popularity in his homeland. (Team boss Gerry Forsythe was also a part-owner of the series.)
Despite finishing higher than Paul Tracy in the 2005 championship, Patrick left the team and the series to join Eddie Cheever's Indy Racing League Indy car Series Cheever Racing. Due to his excellent record on oval tracks he was expected to do well (most of the IndyCar Series races are on ovals which had become virtually extinct in Champ Car), but uncompetitive Toyota engines prevented any major success.
Cheever lost its Red Bull sponsorship after the season and Carpentier was left without a ride as the now unsponsored team scaled back its IndyCar involvement dramatically.
In his eight years in Champ Car, Patrick finished in the top 10 74 times, and stood on the podium 22 times. In his one year in the IRL, he finished with 11 top 10's.
Stock Car Career[]
Carpentier competed in the 2006 CASCAR Super Series event at Cayuga Speedway. He started 21st in the Dave Jacobs Racing car and finished sixth. He signed on to drive a Daytona Prototype in the 2007 Grand American Road Racing Association for SAMAX Motorsport with teammate Milka Duno. He later left Samax to pursue a career in NASCAR.
Carpentier made his debut in the NASCAR Busch Series at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on August 4, 2007, taking the pole in qualifying and finished the race in 2nd place.[1] Patrick made his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut on August 12, 2007, at Watkins Glen, in the Gillett Evernham Motorsports #10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge, replacing Scott Riggs and started 40th. Carpentier led for 7 laps in the race near the midway portion of the race and wound up finishing in the 20th position. In October 2007, it was announced he would drive the #10 car full-time in 2008.
2008 Sprint Cup racecar
On February 14, 2008, Carpentier attempted to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500 in the second of two Gatorade Duels. Carpentier ran in the top 10 for most of the day. Late in the race, his right front tire blew, sending him into the backstretch wall. Carpentier was running in third place of the drivers not locked in to the Daytona 500 based on owner points.
On June 27, 2008, Carpentier won his first pole for the Sprint Cup Series for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The pole was the first by a foreign born in NASCAR's top division since Lloyd Shaw (from Toronto, Canada) won the pole at Langhorne Speedway in June 1953.[2] He said he would run naked in order to get voted into the All-Star race and he probably would have won if he didn't wreck in the Open race
On July 5, 2008 Patrick earned his best career Sprint Cup finish by finishing 14th in the Coke Zero 400. The NNS race at Montreal went worse for him. Pat got dumped by Steven Wallace.
References/External links[]
- Official Canadian website
- Official USA website
- 2004 Biography
- IRL statistics
- Champcar statistics
- Story on transition from open wheel to stockcar, accessed September 2006