St. Eustache, QC - With eight laps remaining in the Tufoil 250, Dave Whitlock driving the No. 39 Dickies/NMT Dodge Avenger drove by hometown favourite driver Andrew Ranger to claim his first victory in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. This win comes on the heels of Whitlock’s announcement earlier in the week that he will retire from racing at the end of the 2009 season.
The No. 39 Dickies/NMT/Prostate Cancer Canada/POINTTS/CRS Trucking Dodge Avenger moved steadily up the timing charts during practice in the early afternoon. Whitlock then went on to time trial 11th quickest. “The car has been good all day,” stated Whitlock. “We had a really good first lap in time trials and I was going for a better one on lap two and just got into turn three a little too hard and pushed up in the corner so we ended up starting back a little further than we wanted to.”
2008 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Champion, Scott Steckly took the top spot in qualifying and he would go on to lead the first 44 laps in the Tufoil 250 in front of an enthusiastic group of fans at Autodrome St. Eustache. Track favourite Andrew Ranger then took over the front spot a position he enjoyed several times on the night. After a long green flag run the caution fell on lap 195 and crew chief Warren Jones called Whitlock to the pits for some much needed right side tires.
With only seven cars on the lead lap it turned out to be the right call as Whitlock then had tires that were at least 60 laps newer than everyone in front of him. Over the next 45 laps Whitlock would go on to show everyone why he is a three time CASCAR Super Series champion and has been a regular winner on the top circuits in Canada for many years. With eight laps to go the No. 39 Dickies Dodge Avenger made the pass on Ranger to take the lead. With four to go a three car wreck in turn three would bring out the caution. With all the lead lap cars lining up double file a green, white, checkered finish had the fans on their feet for an exciting finish.
A smiling Whitlock got out of his car after the race and said, “We haven’t run as good as we would have liked the last couple of years so this is sweet. We want to have a great year this year and go out with a bang. This one is for Dickies and Bill McFarlane who was in attendance tonight. We finally gave them their first win. I also want to thank NMT and Dave Orosz who have been long time supporters and Prostate Cancer Canada, POINTTS and CRS Trucking.”
Rounding out the top five were 2. No. 02 Kerry Micks 3. No. 60 Ron Beauchamp Jr. 4. No. 22 Scott Steckly 5. No. 9 Mark Dilley.
Whitlock takes a slim ten point lead in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series points into round two at the home track for the Whitlock Motorsports team as they head to Delaware Speedway just outside of London, ON on June 6th.
TSN will broadcast the Tufoil 250 from St. Eustache on Saturday May 30th at 5 p.m. EST.
For more information on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series please visit www.nascar.ca. For more information on Whitlock Motorsports please visit www.whitlockmotorsports.com
From Linda Jones // Wide Open Motorsport Solutions
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