Raphael Lessard wins in Pinty’s Series debut at home track

After scoring his first top-10 finish in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series earlier this month at Iowa Speedway, Lessard topped that accomplish by winning in his first NASCAR Pinty’s Series start.

The St. Joseph de Beauce, Quebec, teenager took the lead on Lap 137 and remained out front the rest of the way to win the rain-shortened Budweiser 300 at Autodrome Chaudiere.

The Toyota Racing Development driver passed his teammate and defending series champion L.P. Dumoulin and held on to score the surprising win.

“It's (the win) very special, it's kind of a dream come true,” said Lessard. “I never expected to win my first ever NASCAR Pinty's Series race here at home, a major event with all the great drivers who have been here over time. 

“The guys at Dumoulin Competition gave me an awesome race car. It's hard to dominate like this with a one-race deal. It's your first time with the team, with the car and everything is new.”

Lessard also added that his car actually got better as the race went on past halfway.

“I wasn't sure how the race would play out,” Lessard said. “In practice we were okay on new tires, but we needed a little more speed. And on old tires, we just kept being better and better. I had to pace myself to slow down. 

“It was a lot of fun, I can't thank enough the Dumoulin Competition team for the awesome car, my partners Sociétés Louis Jacques and FRL Express, brothers Jean-Francois and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin, and everyone on the team.”

Kevin Lacroix, who won the season opener last month and finished second on the podium at Jukas Motor Speedway in the second race of the season, followed Lessard at the finish to continue his best start of any Pinty’s Series season.

“We always have a hard time here and we were targeting top 5 maybe top 6 and we would’ve been really happy,” Lacroix said. “And now second place, top contender. Everything is very nice for us, we’re really happy, gaining a lot of points, taking the points lead.”

Alex Labbe scored his best series finish since he returned to full-time competition coming home third after starting from the pole with Andrew Ranger and Alex Tagliani rounding out the top five.

Alex Tagliani scored his second top-10 finish of the season in sixth, followed by Brett Taylor’s best series finish in seventh. Brandon White raced from a lap down to finish eighth with Simon Dion-Viens and Donald Theetge completed the top 10.

Fin	St	#	Driver	Sponsor / Owner	Car	Laps	Status	Led	Pts
1		07	Raphael Lessard	Societes Louis Jacques / FRL Express   (J.F Dumoulin)	Dodge	286
2		74	Kevin Lacroix	Bumper to Bumper / Total / Gates   (Sylvain Lacroix)	Dodge	286	1.683
3		36	Alex Labbe	Hotel Le Concorde / Silver Wax / Festidrag   (Dave Jacombs)	Ford	286	3.814
4		27	Andrew Ranger	Mopar / Pennzoil   (Doug Kennington)	Dodge	286	5.527
5		18	Alex Tagliani	RONA / EpiPen / St-Hubert / Spectra Premium   (Scott Steckly)	Chevrolet	286	7.981
6		64	Mark Dilley	Leland / NTN Bearings / Sharkbite   (Susan Micks)	Ford	286	10.451
7		46	Brett Taylor	Wingn It Restaurants   (Bud Morris)	Dodge	286	11.669
8		04	Brandon White	Early Detection is the Key	Chevrolet	286	13.381
9		37	Simon Dion-Viens	Castrol / Rousseau Metal / Best Buy Pieces d'   (Clement Samson)	Ford	285	1 Lap
10		24	Donald Theetge	Mercedes-Benz St Nicolas / Circuit Acura   (Scott Steckly)	Chevrolet	284	2 Laps
11		22	Marc-Antoine Camirand	GM Paille   (Scott Steckly)	Chevrolet	283	3 Laps
12		17	D.J. Kennington	Castrol Edge   (D.J. Kennington)	Dodge	280	6 Laps
13		21	Jason White	Powder Ventures Excavations   (Melissa Mckenzie)	Dodge	280	6 Laps
14		02	T.J. Rinomato *	HOLR / RGC / Watson Building Supplies   (Susan Micks)	Ford	279	7 Laps
15		47	L.P. Dumoulin	Weathertech Canada / Bellemare / Eibach   (Marc-Andre Bergeron)	Dodge	271	15 Laps
16		3	Jason Hathaway	Kubota / Choko / Premium Bulk Systems / Kugel   (Ed Hakonson)	Chevrolet	271	15 Laps
17		1	Anthony Simone	Silverline Tools / Mopar / CBRT / WMI   (Bud Morris)	Dodge	198	88 Laps