Patrick Carpentier

Patrick Carpentier Carpentier in 2007 Born (1971-08-13) August 13, 1971 LaSalle, Quebec, Canada Achievements 1996 Toyota Atlantic Champion Awards 1997 CART Rookie of the Year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career 40 race(s) run over 5 year(s) Best finish 38th (2008) First race 2007 Centurion Boats at the Glen (Watkins Glen) Last race 2011 STP 400 (Kansas) Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 1 NASCAR Nationwide Series career 16 race(s) run over 6 year(s) Car no., team No. 99 (RAB Racing) 2012 position 89th Best finish 50th (2008) First race 2007 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal) Last race 2012 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal) Wins Top tens Poles 0 5 1 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career 1 race(s) run over 1 year(s) Best finish 89th (2008) First race 2008 O'Reilly 200 (Bristol) Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series career 1 race(s) run over 1 year(s) Best finish 35th (2006) First race 2006 Hot Head Henry 200 (Cayuga) Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0 IndyCar Series career 17 race(s) run over 1 year(s) Best finish 10th (2005) First race 2005 Toyota Indy 300 (Homestead) Last race 2005 Toyota Indy 400 (Fontana) Wins Podiums Poles 0 2 0 Champ Car career 140 race(s) run over 8 year(s) Best finish 3rd (2002) First race 1997 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami (Homestead) Last race 2004 Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate (Mexico City) First win 2001 Harrah's 500 (Michigan) Last win 2004 Grand Prix of Monterey (Laguna Seca) Wins Podiums Poles 5 22 5 Statistics current as of November 26, 2012.

Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a retired Canadian race car driver. Now retired, he is best known for his career in the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, where he got five wins and 24 podiums, as well as a 3rd championship finish in 2003 and 2004 Champ Car; he also competed in NASCAR competition in the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series.

Open-wheel career

Carpentier at Twin Ring Motegi in 2005

After winning the 1996 Atlantic Championship, Carpenter debuted in CART in 1997 with Bettenhausen. In 1998 he started driving for Forsythe Racing. In his early years he was prone to missing races through injuries, some of which originated off-track.

His first Champ Car victory came in 2001 at Michigan and he then took third in the championship in 2002. Carpentier was 5th overall in a disappointing 2003 season (compared to title-winning team-mate Paul Tracy). This weakened his position within the team and he was briefly fired in 2004, later being reinstated in a third team car, allegedly because of his marketing popularity in his homeland. (Team boss Gerry Forsythe was also a part-owner of the series.)

In his eight years in Champ Car, Carpentier finished in the top 10 74 times, and stood on the podium 22 times.

Despite finishing higher than Paul Tracy in the 2004 championship, Carpentier left the team and the series for the 2005 season to join Eddie Cheever's Cheever Racing at the IndyCar Series. Due to his excellent record on oval tracks he was expected to do well (most of the IndyCar Series races are on ovals which had become virtually extinct in Champ Car), but uncompetitive Toyota engines prevented any major success. He ended 10th in the standings with two third places and 11 top 10s out of 17 races.

Cheever lost its Red Bull sponsorship after the season and Carpentier was left without a ride as the now unsponsored team scaled back its IndyCar involvement dramatically.

Stock Car career

Patrick Carpentier practicing for the 2007 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway

2008 Sprint Cup racecar

Carpentier competed in the 2006 CASCAR Super Series event at Cayuga Speedway. He started 21st in the Dave Jacobs Racing car and finished sixth. He signed on to drive a Daytona Prototype in the 2007 Grand American Road Racing Association for SAMAX Motorsport with teammate Milka Duno. He later left Samax to pursue a career in NASCAR.

Carpentier made his debut in the NASCAR Busch Series at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on August 4, 2007, taking the pole in qualifying and finished the race in 2nd place.^[1] Carpentier made his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut on August 12, 2007, at Watkins Glen, in the Gillett Evernham Motorsports #10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge, replacing Scott Riggs and started 40th. Carpentier led for 7 laps in the race near the midway portion of the race and wound up finishing in the 20th position. In October 2007, it was announced he would drive the #10 car full-time in 2008.

On February 14, 2008, Carpentier attempted to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500 in the second of two Gatorade Duels. Carpentier ran in the top 10 for most of the day. Late in the race, his right front tire blew, sending him into the backstretch wall. Carpentier was running in third place of the drivers not locked into the Daytona 500 based on owner points.

On June 27, 2008, Carpentier won his first pole for the Sprint Cup Series for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The pole was the first by a foreign born in NASCAR's top division since Lloyd Shaw (from Toronto, Canada) won the pole at Langhorne Speedway in June 1953.^[2]

On July 5, 2008, Carpentier earned his best career Sprint Cup finish by finishing 14th in the Coke Zero 400.

On August 30, 2008, Carpentier announced that he would be a free agent for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series, leaving Gillett Evernham Motorsports.^[3] Four days prior to Carpentier's announcement Gillett Evernham Motorsports had announced that they would hire driver Reed Sorenson for 2009 making Carpentier's future uncertain. On October 7, Carpentier was released by GEM. Former Team Red Bull driver A.J. Allmendinger finished out the year.

On June 9, 2009, Michael Waltrip Racing announced that Carpentier will replace Michael Waltrip in the #55 NAPA Toyota for the two road course races on the 2009 Sprint Cup schedule: Infineon on June 21 and Watkins Glen on August 9.^[4] Carpentier competed in a number of races for Tommy Baldwin Racing in events that conflict with Mike Skinner's truck series schedule.

In 2010, Carpentier ran a number of races for Latitude 43 Motorsports. In 2011, Carpentier returned to his open-wheel roots, attempting to qualify for the 95th Indianapolis 500 for Dragon Racing after former Red Bull driver Scott Speed was unable to get the car up to speed on bump day. Carpentier was unable to get the car in the race. On the stock car side, Carpentier drove a few Sprint Cup races for Frank Stoddard's team. On June 7, Carpentier announced to the Toronto Sun that he would officially retire from racing after the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he's scheduled to drive for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing.

Retirement

On August 20, 2011, Carpentier announced his retirement shortly before the Nationwide race in Montreal. While running fourth, contact with Steven Wallace took him out of the race and he left to a standing ovation from the crowd.^[5]

Despite his retirement, Carpentier stated in January 2012 that he would be willing to compete in the Montreal Nationwide Series race in 2012, to raise money for children's charities.^[6] After starting 13th, Carpentier finished 29th.^[7]

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Indy Lights

CART/Champ Car

Champ Car results
Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1997	Bettenhausen	MIA 9	SRF 15	LBH 15	NZR 12	RIO Ret	STL 2	MIL 8	DET 15	POR 16	CLE 12	TOR 16	MIS Ret	MDO 15	ROA Ret	VAN Inj	LS Inj	FON DNS					17th	27
1998	Player's	MIA 11	MOT Ret	LBH Ret	NZR 13	RIO Ret	STL 15	MIL Ret	DET 15	POR 9	CLE 9	TOR Ret	MIS 8	MDO 7	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LS Ret	HOU Ret	SRF 9	FON Ret			19th	27
1999	Player's	MIA 9	MOT Ret	LBH 17	NZR 14	RIO 6	STL Ret	MIL 9	POR 9	CLE 7	ROA Ret	TOR 11	MIS 10	DET Ret	MDO Inj	CHI 6	VAN 2	LS 9	HOU Ret	SRF Ret	FON Ret		13th	61
2000	Player's	MIA 5	LBH Inj	RIO Inj	MOT Inj	NZR Ret	MIL 3	DET 5	POR 10	CLE 5	TOR 7	MIS 4	CHI Ret	MDO 7	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	LS 9	STL 2	HOU Ret	SRF 5	FON Ret		11th	101
2001	Player's	MTY Ret	LBH Ret	TEX Canc	NAZ Ret	MOT Ret	MIL 17	DET 8	POR 5	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIS 1	CHI 2	MDO 3	ROA 9	VAN 16	LAU 3	ROC 16	HOU 10	LS Ret	SRF 11	FON 10	10th	91
2002	Player's	MTY 7	LBH 19	MOT 4	MIL 15	LS 5	POR 5	CHI 16	TOR 10	CLE 1*	VAN 5	MDO 1*	ROA 7	MTL 15	DEN 17	ROC 3	MIA 16	SRF 2	FON 3	MXC 4			3rd	157
2003	Player's	STP 8	MTY 8	LBH 6	BRH 5	LAU 7	MIL 3	LS 1*	POR 16	CLE 4	TOR 7	VAN 13	ROA 5	MDO 2	MTL 3	DEN 17	MIA 6	MXC 14	SRF 5	FON Canc			5th	146
2004	Forsythe	LBH 4	MTY 4	MIL 2	POR 4	CLE 16	TOR 3	VAN 16	ROA 14	DEN 9	MTL 2	LS 1	LVS 3	SRF 16	MXC 6								3rd	266^

• ^ New points system introduced in 2004.

IndyCar

IndyCar Series results
Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Rank	Points
2005	Cheever Racing	HMS 7	PHX 9	STP 8	MOT 13	INDY 21	TXS 16	RIR 3	KAN 14	NSH 3	MIL 7	MIS 9	KTY 12	PPIR 10	SNM 4	CHI 9	WGL 10	FON 15		10th	376
2011	Dragon Racing	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY DNQ	TXS1	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NWH	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LVS	NC	-

Indy 500 results

International open-wheel racing

A1 Grand Prix

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Nationwide Series

Craftsman Truck Series

^* Season in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

See also

• List of Canadians in Champ Car
• List of Canadians in NASCAR

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patrick Carpentier.

External links

• Patrick Carpentier driver statistics at Racing Reference
• Construction Patrick Carpentier Inc.
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 1, in 2007
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 2
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 3