Fontana II: Patrick Carpentier preview

STATESVILLE, N.C. -- Patrick Carpentier has lapped the 2-mile oval in Fontana Calif. at over 230 mph many times during his career driving open wheel cars. In a stock car the rookie is more likely to post lap speeds in the 175 mph range this weekend in his No. 10 Sears Auto Center/Valvoline Dodge. But the Quebec-native will be the first to admit he prefers racing stock cars.

""From all the driving I've done in the past these cars are still my favorite," Carpentier explained. "The car slides all around and you have to work it all the time. You have to be so focused and up on the wheel lap after lap. I'm getting better at running with these guys for a longer period of time. I just love it. Like I always say, it's a rental car on steroids."

PATRICK CARPENTIER:

"I am really looking forward to this weekend in Fontana. The cool thing about NASCAR is if you have a bad weekend you only have to wait a few days and you get a chance to race again and put away any of the bad memories. We missed Bristol last weekend but we aren't going to let it get us down. It will give us even more motivation for this week's race in Fontana.

"When we take to the track for qualifying I'm faced with two choices. I can run a solid time to get us in the race or I can go all out and hopefully earn a top 10 starting spot and risk wrecking. It's a challenge when you know you have a solid car so you don't want and push it too hard and screw up your chances of making the field. But you can't leave anything on the table either. It's a fine line you have to balance. The guys work hard all week on these cars. Gillett Evernham Motorsports has been giving me solid racecars. The more practice time I get, the better we seem to perform."

Chassis info: The No. 10 crew will bring chassis No. 250. The same chassis that earned his second best finish of the season [18th, Indianapolis]. Backup is No. 218.

-credit: gem