Patrick Carpentier

Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a Canadian former professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 2002 and 2004. The long-time Champ Car driver switched to the IndyCar Series in 2005, and moved on to Grand-Am Road Racing in 2007. After a few NASCAR races in 2007, he moved full-time into the series in 2008. Since 2009, he has only had part-time drives, so became a contractor and renovator in Montreal, trading in real estate in Las Vegas, as well as being a color commentator for television coverage of various racing series. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 32 Ford Fusion for Go Fas Racing. Carpentier is now the president of a home construction firm in Quebec.

Toyota Atlantic years

Carpentier started into Formula Ford 2000 Canada, before moving up to Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship in 1992. He joined Lynx Racing in 1995, whereby he won his first-ever race for the team around the streets of Bicentennial Park (Miami). He won again on the Nazareth Speedway oval, however the remainder of the season was marked by a variety of mechanical problems.

1996 was a whole different story. During the course of the Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship, he would shatter every record in the 25-year history of the championship, including nine wins out of twelve races – eight of them in a row, from pole position. He rewrote the record book for this series, setting a new record for the most consecutive wins(8), most wins in a season (9), also most consecutive wins from pole (eight), most laps led in a season and most accumulated points in a season (239). This included a flag-to-flag victory at the Grand Prix Molson du Canada meeting. After shattering Gilles Villeneuve's long standing records, his 1996 Atlantic season propelled him to the major league Indycar series.

IndyCar career After winning the 1996 Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship, Carpentier won a ride with Bettenhausen/Alumax team in CART, defeating several veteran racers from across the US and Europe, in a test held at Sebring. He debuted in CART in 1997 with Bettenhausen/Alumax team. In that first season, he was on pole at Nazareth, with a best finish was second at the inaugural race at Gateway, the Motorola 300. He would also be crowned "Rookie of the Year".

Tracy's performance weakened Carpentier's position within the team and rumours circulating pre-2004 season suggesting Carpentier would be dropped by Forsythe Racing, in favour of Rodolfo Lavín. Instead, Gerald Forsythe decided to run a third car for Lavin. Allegedly, Patrick kept his ride because of his marketing popularity in his homeland. He would repay Forsythe by retaining the Grand Prix of Monterey. Despite finishing higher than Paul Tracy in the 2004 championship, Carpentier left the team and the series for the 2005 season, joining Eddie Cheever's Cheever Racing in 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 tenth in the standings with two third places and eleven top-tens out of seventeen races.

The 2005 season would be Carpentier's last in open-wheel competition. In a 2016 interview, he acknowledged he had decided to retire after seeing Ryan Briscoe's crash into the catchfence at the Chicagoland race; other major IRL crashes like the one suffered by Kenny Bräck in the 2003 finale at Texas also played a role in his decision. In his nine years as a competitor in CART and IRL's IndyCar, Carpentier finished 85 times in the top-ten, and stood on the podium 24 times.

Sports car career

Shortly after the end of his IndyCar career, Carpentier drove a Crawford-Lexus DP03 for former boss Eddie Cheever in the 2006 Rolex 24 at Daytona. He then competed in the 2006 CASCAR Super Series event at Cayuga Speedway. Carpentier started 21st in the Dave Jacobs Racing car and finished sixth. From there he tried his hand at Grand-Am Road Racing, running a partial season with SAMAX Motorsport piloting their Riley Mk XI.

Carpentier re-signed for another season with SAMAX, to drive a Daytona Prototype in the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, alongside either Milka Duno or Ryan Dalziel. The highlight of this partnership was their second place in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The trio also shared their Riley-Pontiac Mk XI with another British driver, Darren Manning. They finished on the same lap as the winner, just 75.845 seconds behind after 24 hours of racing, leading for 121 of the 668 laps. Carpentier last race for SAMAX was the 400 km Montreal, where he finished tenth, partnered by Kris Szekeres, took place on August 3, 2007. He later left SAMAX to pursue a career in NASCAR, with his first race (the NAPA Auto Parts 200) the next day.

Stock car career

Carpentier made his debut in the NASCAR Busch Series at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on August 4, 2007, taking pole in qualifying and finished the controversial race in 2nd place, behind Kevin Harvick, while Robby Gordon was disqualified by NASCAR from his first place spot for intentionally wrecking Marcos Ambrose and ignoring a resulting penalty. Carpentier would return to Montreal to post another second place in 2008. Carpentier made his NASCAR Nextel Cup debut on August 12, 2007, at Watkins Glen, in the Gillett Evernham Motorsports #10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools-sponsored Dodge, replacing Scott Riggs and started fortieth. Carpentier led for seven laps in the race near the midway portion of the race and wound up finishing in the twentieth 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-ten 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.

Carpentier had not seen New Hampshire before visiting for track for the 2008 Lenox Industrial Tools 301. On June 27, 2008, in just his 17th NASCAR race, he became only the second non-American driver to qualify on pole. He was the first by a foreign born in NASCAR's top division since Lloyd Shaw (from Toronto, Ontario, Canada) won the pole at Langhorne Speedway in June 1953. Come race day, he didn't give up the lead easily as he led the first four laps. "That was a heck of a thrill," Carpentier said after the race. "Winning the pole on Friday was certainly a highlight of my career. But leading those laps was unbelievable. It's hard to put into words." He would later be hit by brakes problems and would finish down in 31st place.

On July 5, 2008, Carpentier earned his best career Sprint Cup finish by finishing fourteenth 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. 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 would replace team owner, Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 NAPA-sponsored Toyota for the two road course races on the 2009 Sprint Cup schedule: Sonoma on June 21 and Watkins Glen on August 9. 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 drove for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing.

Carpentier's No. 32 car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016 On April 22, 2016, Carpentier announced he would return to the Cup Series starting with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, followed by also competing in the Brickyard 400 at Indy for Go Fas Racing. Piloting the No.32 Can-Am Kappa, Cyclops Ford Fusion Carpentier was the only road course ringer in the race at Sonoma. A promising day went wrong when Carpentier blew a tire while running eleventh with less than fifteen laps to go, resulting in a 37th-place finish. Carpentier would steal the headlines during practice for the Brickyard 400 when he got into an accident with Kyle Busch. Carpentier would finish 34th in the race, his best finish of the season.

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.

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. After starting thirteenth, Carpentier finished 29th.

In 2013, after spending time trying to stay away from racing, Carpentier joined the French-language sports channel RDS, as a colour commentator for their NASCAR broadcasts. After retiring from full-time racing in 2008, he said that he “tried other things but I need to be around racing. Everything has been very different since I stopped racing and I have been trying to come to grips with it.” Prior to this, Carpentier was in the home renovation business, buying and selling real estate in Nevada, where he lived whilst an active racer. As the economic downturn hit the Las Vegas region hard and real estate prices started to sag, this made life difficult for him, so when RDS contacted him, he took up their offer.

When in August 2014, the inaugural World Rallycross Championship hit the classic Canadian street venue, Circuit Trois-Rivières, the seventh round of the season. Carpentier was the chance to make his rallycross debut with the Volkswagen Marklund Motorsport outfit. Despite his lack of experience of Rallycross cars, he raced through the heats, qualifying for the Final. At the start of the final, Carpentier slotted his Volkswagen Polo in fourth place behind Timur Timerzyanov. He was the first driver to take his joker lap, but spun at the end of the second lap, putting him out of contention for a podium finish. By lap four, much to the dismay of the crowd, Carpentier crashed out, leaving him classified sixth overall in the first ever World RX of Canada event. The event was won by Petter Solberg, from Anton Marklund. Carpentier raced a JRM Racing Mini Countryman in the 2015 World RX of Canada, this time finishing fourteenth overall and failing to reach the semi-finals.

Carpentier was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2021.

Broadcasting career Carpentier has become a TV broadcast commentator for motorsports on Réseau des sports, the French-language version of TSN.

Racing record

Career highlights

Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results

Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 2006 Cheever Racing Christian Fittipaldi Eddie Cheever Crawford-Lexus DP03 DP 669 DNF DNF 2007 SAMAX Motorsport Milka Duno Darren Manning Ryan Dalziel Riley-Pontiac Mk XI DP 668 2nd 2nd

American open–wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Indy Lights

CART/Champ Car

^ New points system introduced in 2004.

IndyCar IndyCar Series results Year Team No. Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rank Points Ref 2005 Cheever Racing 83 Dallara Toyota HMS7 PHX9 STP8 MOT13 INDY21 TXS16 RIR3 KAN14 NSH3 MIL7 MIS9 KTY12 PPIR10 SNM4 CHI9 WGL10 FON15 10th 376 2011 Dragon Racing 20 Honda STP ALA LBH SAO INDYDNQ TXS1 TXS2 MIL IOW TOR EDM MDO NHM SNM BAL MOT KTY LVS3C NC -

1 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

Indianapolis 500 Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team 2005 Dallara Toyota 25 21 Cheever Racing 2011 Dallara Honda DNQ Dragon Racing

International open-wheel racing

A1 Grand Prix (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) A1 Grand Prix results Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Points 2005-06 Canada GBRSPR GBRFEA GERSPR GERFEA PORSPR PORFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA UAESPR UAEFEA RSASPR RSAFEA IDNSPR IDNFEA MEXSPR9 MEXFEA15 USASPR6 USAFEA5 CHNSPRRet CHNFEA7 11th 59

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 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pts Ref 2007 Gillett Evernham Motorsports 10 Dodge DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV POC MCH SON NHA DAY CHI IND POC GLN22 MCH BRI CAL RCH NHA DOV KAN TAL CLT MAR ATL TEX PHO33 HOM40 57th 209 2008 DAYDNQ CALDNQ LVS40 ATL35 BRIDNQ MAR29 TEX28 PHO33 TAL31 RCH43 DAR40 CLT37 DOV29 POC32 MCH24 SON23 NHA31 DAY14 CHI30 IND18 POC GLN20 MCH30 BRIDNQ CAL18 RCH25 NHA31 DOV41 KAN29 TALDNQ CLT MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM 38th 1794 2009 Tommy Baldwin Racing 36 Toyota DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV POC43 MCH NHA43 DAY42 CHI IND POC37 ATLDNQ RCH NHA DOV KAN CAL CLT MAR TAL TEX PHO HOM 50th 351 Michael Waltrip Racing 55 Toyota SON11 GLN33 MCH BRI 2010 Latitude 43 Motorsports 26 Ford DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR PHO TEX TAL RCH DAR DOV CLT POC MCH SON NHA DAY CHI IND POC GLN21 MCH29 BRI ATL28 RCH NHA DOV KAN27 CALDNQ CLT37 MAR TAL TEX31 PHO HOMDNQ 50th 474 2011 FAS Lane Racing 32 Ford DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL MAR TEX TAL RCH DAR DOV CLT KAN30 POC MCH SON DAY KEN NHA IND POC GLN MCH BRI ATL RCH CHI NHA DOV KAN CLT TAL MAR TEX PHO HOM 66th 01 2016 Go FAS Racing 32 Ford DAY ATL LVS PHO CAL MAR TEX BRI RCH TAL KAN DOV CLT POC MCH SON37 DAY KEN NHA IND34 POC GLN BRI MCH DAR RCH CHI NHA DOV CLT KAN TAL MAR TEX PHO HOM 47th 11

Daytona 500 Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish 2008 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge DNQ

Nationwide Series NASCAR Nationwide Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Pts Ref 2007 FitzBradshaw Racing 22 Chevy DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP CGV2 GLN19 MCH BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM TEX PHO 93rd 293 Gillett Evernham Motorsports 19 Dodge HOM42 2008 9 DAY CAL LVS8 ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO MXC5 TAL8 RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA18 DAY CHI GTY IRP CGV2 GLN22 MCH33 BRI CAL RCH DOV20 KAN CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM 50th 987 2009 SK Motorsports 07 Toyota DAY CAL LVS BRI TEX NSH PHO TAL RCH DAR17 CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP IOW GLN MCH BRI 108th 161 Michael Waltrip Racing 99 Toyota CGV38 ATL RCH DOV KAN CAL CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM 2010 Diamond-Waltrip Racing 00 DAY CAL LVS BRI NSH PHO TEX TAL RCH DAR DOV CLT NSH KEN ROA NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP IOW GLN MCH BRI CGV32 ATL RCH DOV KAN CAL CLT GTY TEX PHO HOM 131st 67 2011 Pastrana-Waltrip Racing 99 DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL TEX TAL NSH RCH DAR DOV IOW CLT CHI MCH ROA DAY KEN NHA NSH IRP IOW GLN CGV32 BRI ATL RCH CHI DOV KAN CLT TEX PHO HOM 82nd 12 2012 RAB Racing DAY PHO LVS BRI CAL TEX RCH TAL DAR IOW CLT DOV MCH ROA KEN DAY NHA CHI IND IOW GLN CGV29 BRI ATL RCH CHI KEN DOV CLT KAN TEX PHO HOM 88th 15

Craftsman Truck Series NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Pts Ref 2008 Bobby Hamilton Racing 04 Dodge DAY CAL ATL MAR KAN CLT MFD DOV TEX MCH MLW MEM KEN IRP NSH BRI25 GTY NHA LVS TAL MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM 89th 88

Complete FIA World Rallycross Championship results

Supercar Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Position Points 2014 Marklund Motorsport Volkswagen Polo R POR GBR NOR FIN SWE BEL CAN6 FRA GER ITA TUR ARG 30th 13 2015 JRM Racing Mini Countryman RX POR HOC BEL GBR GER SWE CAN14 NOR FRA ESP TUR ITA ARG 29th 3