Pinty’s Series drivers prepare for season opener at CTMP

Nearly 20 drivers participated in a preseason test session Wednesday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park nearly in anticipation of the 2017 NASCAR Pinty’s Series season opener.

Among the participants was two-time series champion D.J. Kennington, who was testing his No. 17 Castrol Dodge before heading to Talladega Superspeedway. Kennington will attempt to qualify for his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start of the season.

“Our car ran well during the test at CTMP,” Kennington said. “We ran about 10 laps in the car and had a good test just making sure everything we right with the car and it was fast. We should be good to go when we come back and get it dialed in for the season opener.”

While Kennington is ready to challenge for his third Pinty’s Series championship, the St. Thomas, Ontario native is also looking forward to qualifying for the Cup race at NASCAR’s largest and fastest oval track.

“We’re getting everything ready and I’ll be in North Carolina (today) with the team and get the car loaded up and headed to Talladega,” Kennington said. “Having Mike Ford on board with us as crew chief for this race is huge for our team. He brings so much experience to our team and it should be a big help for us to try and qualify for the race. If we get in the show anything can happen so we’re going there to do the best we can.”

Kennington qualified for the Daytona 500 and was running with the leaders when he was collected in a multi-car accident.

L.P. Dumoulin, the 2014 series champion, also logged laps at the historic road course located outside of Toronto as Trois-Rivieres. The Quebec native was pleased with his test.

“The test session went really well for us in our No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge,” said Dumoulin. “Our team worked really hard in the offseason on our cars and its already paying dividends for our team. Last year was a challenging year for us but the guys in the shop have kept working hard and we’re looking forward to the season.”

While the test session was relatively calm for most competitors, Alex Tagliani couldn’t say the same for his No. 18 Lowes Canada/Epipen Chevrolet.

“We had the drive shaft break on our second lap of practice and when that happened I lost all rear braking and hit the wall in Turn 5,” said Tagliani. “I hit the tire barrier pretty hard as I picked up speed before hitting the tires. I’m okay and our car was really fast before we had the mechanical issue.”

The Can-Am 200 on May 21 kicks off the 13-race 2017 season for Canada’s only NASCAR-sanctioned touring series.