Steve Arpin (born December 16, 1983, from Fort Frances, Ontario) is a Canadian stock car driver competing in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and previously, the NASCAR Nationwide Series. His first season with ARCA was in 2009 finishing 7th in the championship standings and winning the ARCA RE/MAX Series Most Popular Driver Award. He was also the 2008 USAC Silver Crown Series Rookie of the Year.
Contents |
Arpin made his racing debut in Go-Karts at Riverside Speedway in Rainy River, Ontario at the age of 10. He won several races as a rookie and stood atop of the standings most of his karting career. By the age of 14, Steve starting racing Mini-Sprints at the Emo Speedway in 1997. The following year, he moved straight to WISSOTA Modifieds and in 1999, took the track championship in the class. His skill at the wheel started to really come out soon after. Finishing second in track standings in 2000, Arpin returned to the top in 2001 by winning every feature event at the track, claiming his second track championship in three years. The domination didn't stop as he won the majority of races in 2002, just missing his third championship.
It was announced in the summer of 2010 that Arpin would drive the #7 Chevy for JR Motorsports in a limited schedule, as a fill in in for Danica Patrick. Talks with JRM's owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. started in 2009. This was made public during the Rattlesnake 150 ARCA event which Arpin won. Arpin made his first start in that summer at the Aaron's 312 where he was competitive until being caught in a wreck late in the event. His first top-10 finish came in the 2010 Subway Jalapeño 250 powered by Coca-Cola with a 10th place finish.
In 2011, Arpin made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut with Turner Motorsports behind the wheel of the No. 32 Mike’s Hard Lemonade Chevrolet Silverado. The Fort Frances native joined teammates James Buescher, Ricky Carmichael, Blake Feese, Mark Martin and Brad Sweet competing on the popular NASCAR circuit.
In 2002, Arpin began to increase his travels throughout the United States, especially in Minnesota. At the age of 18, he took the feature win at the Silver 1000 in Proctor, Minnesota and the WISSOTA 100 at Cedar Lake Speedway which garnered him large attention in the WISSOTA region. Steve also won the largest modified race east of the Mississippi at Brushcreek Motorsports Complex, the American Heritage classic. For winning the Heritage Classic he won a Harly-Davidson Soft Tail motorcycle.
In his early teen's, Arpin also raced snowmobiles during the winter. He won several events at the local scene and was picked up shortly thereafter by Polaris Industries becoming the youngest driver to ever compete for the company. Throughout his time of snowmobiles, he captured three world championships, four Polaris championships and many feature wins.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||