Patrick Carpentier
Patrick Carpentier 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. 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, most wins in a season, also most consecutive wins from pole, most laps led in a season and most accumulated points in a season. 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".In 1998, Carpentier started driving for Player's Forsythe Racing, when the team expanded their operations to run a second alongside fellow Canadian, Greg Moore. At the end of the following season, with the unfortunate death of Moore, in season finale, the Marlboro 500 at Fontana, Carpentier became Forsythe's number one, when rookie Alex Tagliani was brought into the squad, keeping it an all-Canadian affair. In his early years he was prone to missing races through injuries, some of which originated off-track.
Carpentier's first Champ Car victory came in 2001 in the Harrah's 500, at the Michigan International Speedway, and would finish tenth in the overall end of year standing. In what was the last CART sanctioned Michigan 500, he seized victory with a dramatic last-lap pass of Dario Franchitti. For Carpentier, this first CART win finally arrived in his 79th start. The following season, he would win twice, Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland, and Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio and would take third in the championship standing. Carpentier was 5th overall in a disappointing 2003 season, despite winning the Grand Prix of Monterey, at the Laguna Seca.
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 Lavin. 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, 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 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.
Image:Patrick Carpentier 2008 Valvoline Dodge Charger.jpg|thumb|left|2008 Sprint Cup racecar
Carpentier had not seen New Hampshire Motor Speedway 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 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: Infineon 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.
Image:Patrick Carpentier.jpg|thumb|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 2016 Brickyard 400 when he got into an accident with Kyle Busch. Carpentier would finish 34th in the race, his best finish of the season.