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Patrick Carpentier

Born	August 13, 1971 (1971-08-13) (age 38)
Hometown	Ville Lasalle, Quebec
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series statistics
First race	2007 Centurion Boats at the Glen (Watkins Glen)
Last race	2009 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 1
NASCAR Nationwide Series statistics
First race	2007 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal)
Last race	2009 Diamond Hill Plywood 200 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 5 1
Statistics current as of October 26, 2008.

Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a Canadian race car driver. He is best known for his career in the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. Patrick shares the #36 of Tommy Baldwin Racing with Mike Skinner and ran Michael Waltrip's #55 Toyota Camry in the road course races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.^[1]

Open-Wheel Career

In 2005 Patrick drove for the Red Bull-sponsored team run by Eddie Cheever in the Indy Racing League. Prior to this he spent nearly a decade in the rival ChampCar series with Bettenhausen as a rookie, but subsequently in the team owned by Gerry Forsythe. 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. Patrick 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.)

Despite finishing higher than Paul Tracy in the 2005 championship, Patrick left the team and the series to join Eddie Cheever's Indy Racing League Indy Car Series Cheever Racing. 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.

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.

In his eight years in Champ Car, Patrick finished in the top 10 74 times, and stood on the podium 22 times. In his one year in the IRL, he finished with 11 top 10's.

Stock Car Career

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.^[2] Patrick 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 in to 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.^[3]

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

On August 30, 2008, Patrick announced that he would be a free agent for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series, leaving Gillett Evernham Motorsports.^[4] 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 7th, 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 Patrick 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.^[5] Carpentier competed in a number of races for Tommy Baldwin Racing in events that conflict with Mike Skinner's truck series schedule.

Motorsports Career Results

American Open-Wheel

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

Champ Car

Years 1997-2000 to be completed

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
2001	Player's	MTY Ret	LBH Ret	TEX Canc	NAZ Ret	MOT Ret	MIL 17	DET 8	POR 5	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC 1	CHI 2	MDO 3	ROA 9	VAN 16	LAU 3	ROC 16	HOU 10	LAG Ret	SRF 11	FON 10	10th	91
2002	Player's	MTY 7	LBH Ret	MOT 4	MIL Ret	LAG 5	POR 5	CHI Ret	TOR 10	CLE 1	VAN 5	MDO 1	ROA 7	MTL Ret	DEN Ret	ROC 3	MIA Ret	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 Ret	CLE 4	TOR 7	VAN Ret	ROA 5	MDO 2	MTL 3	DEN Ret	MIA 6	MXC Ret	SRF 5	FON Canc			5th	146
2004	Forsythe	LBH 4	MTY 4	MIL 2	POR 4	CLE Ret	TOR 3	VAN Ret	ROA 14	DEN 9	MTL 2	LS 1	LVS 3	SRF Ret	MXC 6								3rd	266*

• * New points system introduced in 2004.

Indy 500 results

International Open Wheel

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (sr = sprint race, fr = feature race)

See also

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

List of Canadians in Champ Car

References/External links

• Official Canadian website
• Official USA website
• 2004 Biography
• IRL statistics
• Champcar statistics
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 1
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 2
• ESPN:Tailing Patrick Carpentier Day 3
• Story on transition from open wheel to stockcar, accessed September 2006

References

1. ^ http://www.canada.com/Carpentier+race+Spring+event/1678519/story.html
2. ^ Results : NAPA Auto Parts 200
3. ^ Carpentier only 2nd foreign born driver to win a pole
4. ^ Need a good Cup driver for ‘09? Call Patrick Carpentier
5. ^ Carpentier to race Spring Cup event