Kevin Lepage
| Kevin Lepage | |||||||
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 Lepage in 2008 | |||||||
| Born |
June 26, 1962 Shelburne, Vermont, U.S. | ||||||
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career | |||||||
| 201 race(s) run over 11 year(s) | |||||||
| Best finish | 25th (1999) | ||||||
| First race | 1997 UAW-GM Quality 500 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| Last race | 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 (Loudon) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Nationwide Series career | |||||||
| 336 race(s) run over 20 year(s) | |||||||
| 2013 position | 39th | ||||||
| Best finish | 8th (1996) | ||||||
| First race | 1986 Oxford 250 (Oxford) | ||||||
| Last race | 2013 Dollar General 300 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| First win | 1996 Jiffy Lube Miami 300 (Homestead) | ||||||
| Last win | 1998 Food City 250 (Bristol) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career | |||||||
| 7 race(s) run over 5 year(s) | |||||||
| Best finish | 61st (2006) | ||||||
| First race | 2005 MBNA RacePoints 200 (Dover) | ||||||
| Last race | 2009 AAA Insurance 200 (Dover) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of November 16, 2013. | |||||||
Kevin Lepage (born June 26, 1962)[1] is an American stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Early career
Lepage spent the 1980s driving in both the Busch North series and the Vermont-based American Canadian Tour series. He drove with occasional success in these series for the better part of 14 years.
Early Busch Series Career
Lepage made his Busch Series debut in 1986 at Oxford Plains Speedway, starting 41st and finishing 15th in the #09 Buick owned by Carl Merrill. He became a Busch Series regular in 1994, serving as an owner/driver in the #71 Vermont Teddy Bear Company car and running for Rookie of the Year honors. He had a best finish of 9th at New Hampshire International Speedway, in which he got a flat tire at the very end of the race,[2] and finished 24th in points. The 1995 season resulted in five Top 10's and finishing 18th in points. At the end of the season, he lost his sponsorship and ran his own car unsponsored until April. Lepage then joined David Ridling and his #88 Emerald Performance Group team with sponsorship from Ridling's own Farmer's Choice Fertilizer. He won his first career race at the season finale Jiffy Lube Miami 300 with Hype Energy sponsorship. He finished eighth in points with 1 win, 3 Top 5's and 10 Top 10's. He ran most of the 1997 season driving for Ridling before leaving due to the team losing its sponsor. Lepage would finish out the year running for Phoenix Racing and ST Motorsports. He finished 12th in points, posting 3 Top 5's and 6 Top 10's. Lepage had his Cup debut by qualifying for the Fall Charlotte race in the #91 LJ Racing car in an impressive 12th. He would also run the Fall Talladega and Atlanta races with finishes of 17th at Talladega and 29th at Atlanta.
Winston Cup 1998–2002
Lepage made the move to Winston Cup in 1998, driving for the LJ Racing team. Despite the team's lack of sponsorship, Lepage posted two fourteenth-place finishes, catching the eye of Jack Roush, owner of Roush Racing. Lepage announced his decision to depart LJ Racing in late June 1998 and sat out 6 races to work out the details of the new contract with Roush. He would drive the #16 Primestar Ford Taurus in place of Ted Musgrave, who was released after Lepage's hiring. He earned a pair of top-10 finishes in 13 races for Roush, his best finish being a sixth place at Charlotte. Despite missing several races, he nearly won the 1998 Rookie of the Year title. Lepage also drove in the Busch Series for Doug Taylor's #40 team with sponsorship from Channellock. Lepage finished 14th in points despite only starting 24 races out of 31. Lepage won his second career race at the August Food City 250 at Bristol and won his first career pole at the June MBNA Platinum 200 at Dover. He finished the year with 1 win, 6 Top 5's and 10 Top 10's.
Lepage returned in 1999 with sponsorship from Primestar which switched to TV Guide in April after Primestar was sold to General Motors owned DirectTV. He had two top-tens and won the pole at the season-ending NAPA 500, earning him a 25th-place points finish. Lepage also ran in the Busch Series driving the #99 J&J Racing/Brewco Motorsports car with sponsorship from Red Man. He finished 35th in points with 14 starts, 2 Top 5's and 6 Top 10's.
He began 2000 unsponsored, before picking up backing from Familyclick.com. He failed to qualify twice and finished 28th in points with 1 Top 5 and 3 Top 10's. At the end of the year, Familyclick ended its backing and Roush closed the 16 team. That season Lepage restarted his #71 Busch team as Matrix Motorsports with sponsorship from Red Man, Southern Pride Chewing Tobacco and State Fair Corn Dogs. He finished 42nd in points with 10 starts, 1 Top 5 and 2 Top 10's.
In 2001 Lepage returned to the Busch Series to run his own team, Matrix Motorsports, driving the #71 State Fair Corn Dogs Ford. Running 15 races, he had one top-five, four top-tens and a pole at Kansas Speedway. He also returned to the Cup series, running the #4 Kodak Chevrolet for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, replacing Robby Gordon after five races. Late in the season, he switched to the #7 Ultra Motorsports Ford, posting a tenth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway. Despite missing seven races, Lepage ended up 36th in points.
Recent years 2002–present
Early in 2002, Lepage's team went inactive due to a lack of sponsorship, even though he had an 8th at Daytona and a 4th at Las Vegas. He soon joined Brewco Motorsports, driving their #37 Timber Wolf Chevy. In 24 starts that year, he had six top-tens and two poles, finishing 25th in points. He also ran three Cup races, two in the #38 Quest Motor Racing Ford, and another for BAM Racing at Talladega in a car sponsored by Billy Ray Cyrus. His best finish that year was a 40th at Loudon.
In 2003, Lepage ran his own team at the Cup level for one race, finishing 32nd at the Coca-Cola 600. He ran two races that year for CLR Racing, where he had a fourth place start at Michigan, before returning to Morgan-McClure to finish the year, his best finish a fourteenth at Atlanta. He teamed with Morgan-McClure again in 2004, but after six races, Lepage departed due to a lack of sponsorship. He then signed with Competitive Edge Motorsports, posting a best finish of 41st twice, before leaving the team. He ended the season with R&J Racing, where he had a best finish of 27th at Phoenix International Raceway. He also ran eleven races in the Busch Series for MacDonald Motorsports, where he had two top-fifteen finishes.
In 2005, Lepage returned to R&J, and started the season off with a third-place finish in the Gatorade Duels and a ninth-place finish at the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, the closest Lepage came to another top 10 was a 12th place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600, and was released from the ride after the Brickyard 400. He signed with Peak Performance Racing for the balance of the year, and had a sixth-place qualifying effort at Kansas. He finished the season 39th in points. He also ran six races with MacDonald in the Busch Series as well, posting a ninth-place finish at Lowe's. That year, Lepage made his debut in the Craftsman Truck Series for Green Light Racing at Dover finishing 19th.
Lepage returned to Peak for 2006, but due to a lack of funding, the team was sold to Front Row Motorsports in April. Lepage ran a couple of races for FRM before leaving for BAM Racing. He ran 12 races for BAM with a best finish of 21st at Bristol Motor Speedway before leaving them. Lepage then rejoined Front Row Motorsports making two of the final eight races in their #34 and #61 cars. He ended up 40th in points even with missing 14 races. He also ran a limited schedule in the Busch Series for Mac Hill Motorsports with a best finish of 19th in seven races. Lepage ran two races for Green Light Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series with a best finish of 21st at Michigan. At the end of the year, Lepage sold the remnants of Matrix Motorsports to start a lawn care business called Matrix Lawn and Landscaping.[3]
In 2007, Lepage started the year driving the #34 Front Row Motorsports car in the races where the team could afford to run two cars. Starting in late April, Front Row would mainly run the #37 car with Lepage making most of the attempts. In 27 attempts, Lepage was only able to make two races; at Darlington and New Hampshire. He also drove a part-time schedule for a few teams in the Busch Series including the #52 Means Racing Ford, as well as some additional races for Randy MacDonald and D.D.L. Motorsports with a best finish of 28th at Watkins Glen. Lepage also had two starts for Team Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series with a best finish of 35th at Texas.
Lepage returned to driving full-time in the Nationwide Series (formally known as the Busch Series) in 2008, driving for Specialty Racing. While racing for Specialty, Lepage made one of most controversial moves in the history of NASCAR when he proceeded to pull off pit road and directly in front of the entire field. Lepage blamed it on the spotter for every other team stating "nobody recognized my car was damaged and vastly underpowered," but later apologized for the accident himself. Lepage was released by Specialty after the July Daytona race and was replaced by Brandon Whitt. The following race at Chicagoland he failed to qualify a car brought by Front Row Motorsports. After he failed to qualify Lepage drove the #52 Means Racing entry for Brad Teague in order to maintain his position in the driver's points. He then attempted to race at Gateway in Mike Harmon's #84 Chevrolet, but failed to qualify. Later in the season, he was hired to drive the #73 for Derrike Cope, and finished the season 28th in driver's points, despite missing 8 races. Lepage ran one Truck Series race at Homestead for Green Light Racing finishing 35th.
He began the 2009 season without a full-time ride, but after running Derrike Cope's #73 at Bristol, Lepage joined Jimmy Means' team at Texas in April until leaving after the June race at New Hampshire. He then joined Derrike Cope's team for the rest of the season at Chicago primarily driving the #78, but also occasionally driving the #73. Lepage also ran one race for Green Light Racing at Dover in the Camping World Truck Series finishing 33rd, his most recent start in that series to date.
Lepage announced on February 5, 2010, that he would be returning to Mac Hill Motorsports for the 2010 season with sponsorship from Revolucion World Wide/Start Energy Drink. Unfortunately the sponsorship deal fell through after four races and the team was forced to "start and park" races in order to keep costs down. Even with this measure, finances forced the team to start skipping races by mid year. The team partnered up with RaceDaySponsor.com in order to give local sponsors an opportunity to be a sponsor each week. This earned the team finances to get to the track, but not enough to run full races. When the Mac Hill team was unable to get to the track, Lepage got to run some races for #52 Jimmy Means Racing Chevrolet (made four out of five attempts) and #04 Davis Motorsports Chevrolet Elkhart Lake. Even with the limited finances, Lepage was able to make 25 out of 31 race attempts and ended up 40th in points.
In 2010, Lepage was in a Sprint Cup car for the first time since 2007. Lepage joined back up with Morgan-McClure Motorsports to run the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol with sponsorship from Alpha Natural Resources/Joy Mining Machinery. Lepage was unable to qualify for the race.
On November 20, 2010, Mac Hill Motorsports announced that it was discontinuing its Nationwide Series team, allowing Lepage to seek another ride.
On January 10, 2011, Lepage announced that he would drive for Team Rensi Motorsports #24 team in the Nationwide Series, bringing sponsorship from RaceDaySponsor.com, marking the first time since 2008 that Lepage would run a full race distance. Not enough sponsorship was found and the team was forced to start and park four of the five races they ran. After the spring Texas race, they closed down. On April 26, Lepage announced that he would be joining Means Racing starting at Richmond and would work with the team to procure more sponsorship for the rest of the season. Sponsorship was found to allow Lepage to run 17 races without having to start and park, with a best finish of 20th at Phoenix. Lepage finished 27th in Points, which was his best finish since 2008.
On February 2012, Lepage announced that Race Day Sponsor.com and himself were no longer working together. Lepage split time between various race teams in 2012. He started and parked the TriStar Motorsports #10, returned to Means Racing for another 4 races, and ran some races with Mike Harmon and Jay Robinson. He later became the part-time driver for Deware Racing Group's #86 Ford.
References
External links
- Official website
- Kevin Lepage driver statistics at Racing Reference
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