NCATS: Shepherd Leads Young Gun Uprising at Delaware

Photo Credit: Matthew Murnaghan/NASCAR

In past seasons of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, efforts of D.J. Kennington and Scott Steckly have been a dominate duel that has made Canada's most popular stock car racing a rather predictable sport. The premiere of the 2013 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series on the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park road course brought an optimistic belief that a new season will foster more parity throughout the race grid. With the opening race serving as a stage L.P. (Louis-Philippe) Dumoulin's first series win, would the short half-mile oval of Delaware Speedway produce another new face in victory lane?

After a dismal start to his 2013 campaign with a DNF at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Scott Steckly returned to the form of a two-time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion by taking pole for the EMCO 200. The #22 Dodge of Steckly was joined on the front row by D.J. Kennington's #17 Dodge Challenger. Steven Matthews, Pete Shepherd III and J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the top-five qualifiers for the 200-lap Saturday early evening feature.

Right off the bat, Scott Steckly was a man on a mission at Delaware Speedway. From the pole position, Steckly's #22 car led the initial 70 laps of the EMCO 200. With the seasoned driver hunting for a first win in 2013, the winner of the NASCAR Canadian Tire season opener found problems after a handful of laps. L.P. Dumoulin pitted to the attention of his crew on lap 8 requiring an extended stay. Dumoulin would return to the race in his #47 Dodge but finished 40 laps down. Along with the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race winner, that race's runner-up also found misfortune at Delaware Speedway. Fighting near the front easily, Jeff Lapcevich suffered a flat tire on lap 58 losing three laps he'll never recover.

The EMCO 200's first caution came out on lap 18 with a multi-car wreck involving Ryley Seibert's #09 car, the #28 of Dave Connelly and the #69 of Trevor Seibert. Overall, six caution periods lasting 46 laps accompanied the running of the 200-lap race. However, despite the several cautions, only two cars in the field of 22 competitors would be classified as out of the race.




Photo Credit: Matthew Murnaghan/NASCAR

After a positive start, the EMCO 200 quickly took a turned badly for Scott Steckly. Less than halfway distance into the race, reports of smoke from the #22 Dodge was a prelude to a lengthy time spent behind the wall. Forced off the race track on lap 93 for repairs, Steckly would return on lap 162. Finishing 71 laps behind, the favoured championship contender starts his 2013 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series effort with two poor race results.

With Scott Steckly out of contention at Delaware Speedway, the fight at the front was maintained between D.J. Kennington, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Steven Matthews and Pete Shepherd III. On lap 150, the EMCO 200 was climatically decided with a drag race between Shepherd and Fitzpatrick. Prevailing in the fight was the #7 Dodge driven by Shepherd will preceded to lead the remaining 50 laps to win by 0.373 seconds over the #84 Chevrolet of Fitzpatrick.

Pete Shepherd III fourth career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series victory, the win is the 26-year old's first since 2011.

Placing in the runner-up spot, J.R. Fitzpatrick fought with the only Chevrolet at the EMCO 200 field. Enjoying one of his strongest race efforts in his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series career, Steven Matthews started and finished third in his #15 Ford. The 23-old year Matthews wound up beating fellow top-five finishers D.J. Kennington and Martin Roy to the line.



2013 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series
EMCO 200
Delaware Speedway
Race Results

Position	Car #	Driver	Sponsor/ Car Make	Laps Completed	Status
1	7	Pete Shepherd, III	National Exhaust/Diamond Material Dodge	200	Running
2	84	J.R. Fitzpatrick	Equipment Express Chevrolet	200	Running
3	15	Steve Mathews	Bill Mathews Motors Ford	200	Running
4	17	D.J. Kennington	Castrol Edge/Mahindra Tractors Dodge	200	Running
5	90	Martin Roy	Batteries Expert/Gamache Dodge	200	Running
6	5	Noel Dowler	EMCO/Praxair/Safety Kleen Dodge	200	Running
7	56	Larry Jackson	Speedy Auto Service/B&B Decal Dodge	200	Running
8	97	Hugo Vannini	VTI Motorsports Ford	200	Running
9	28	Dave Connelly	Schneider's/Metro Dodge	200	Running
10	50	Joey McColm	Espar Dodge	198	Running
11	3	Jason Hathaway	Snap-On Tools/Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge	197	Running
12	76	Jeff Lapcevich	Tim Hortons Dodge	197	Running
13	60	Ron Beauchamp, Jr.	Mopar/Exide/Pennzoil Dodge	196	Running
14	21	Jason White	Bowers & Wilkins Dodge	192	Running
15	29	Ray Courtemanche Jr.	La Cité De Mirabel Inc. Dodge	191	Running
16	19	Brad Graham	Holmar Plumbing Ford	186	Running
17	9	Ryley Seibert *	Lake Excavating/Marshall's Dodge	179	Running
18	69	Trevor Seibert	Lake Excavating/Emco Waterworks Dodge	172	Accident
19	47	L.P. Dumoulin	WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge	160	Running
20	39	Alex Guenette *	Motos Illimitées/DLGL Dodge	157	Accident
21	22	Scott Steckly	Canadian Tire Dodge	129	Running
22	2	Mark Dilley	Leland/BDI/Dickies Ford	66	Running

 

Shepherd Claims First NASCAR Win at Kawartha; Kennington First Championship



Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/NASCAR

 After 12 races in the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season, the final race at 0.375 mile Kawartha Speedway wraps up Canada's major stock car racing tour with drivers still desiring to prove themselves. As some drivers will want to end the 2010 season with a hard-earned top result, two drivers have a championship honour where only one driver will hold the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series crown. DJ Kennington or JR Fitzpatrick sparred all season long in the points with Fitzpatrick's #84 Chevrolet gaining an advantage on road courses while Kennington's #17 Dodge found the edge on oval tracks.


Though JR Fitzpatrick is skilled on ovals, the circle tracks appeared to be a liability to the Cambridge, Ontario native's title hopes. With three ovals concluding the 2010 NASCAR Canada season, Fitzpatrick continued to lead points following the first of those races at Barrie Speedway. However, a moment of lost power at the Riverside Speedway race in Nova Scotia gave Kennington's Castrol Edge car the edge needed to take the points lead entering Kawartha with a 40-point margin.

Prepared to make JR Fitzpatrick's job hard to reclaim the points lead at the last minute, DJ Kennington nailed down the fastest lap in qualifying for the Kawartha 250 race with the preferential lead at the start. As Kennington beat out Ron Beauchamp Jr to take pole, JR Fitzpatrick timed into the field 8th place with odds for the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series title apparently dwindling.

Once the flag dropped, Kennington led the first 53 laps until the second caution provided an ideal time for the #17 Dodge to pit. After one lap where Donald Chisholm stayed out for 1st place, Kennington would resume at the front for an additional 25 laps.

Showing himself to be the class of the field, the #17 Dodge would relinquish the top position for the Kawartha 250 running order without the knowledge the Castrol Edge time in the lead had concluded the this late afternoon event. Breaking DJ Kennington stranglehold on the lead position of the Kawartha Speedway, Brad Graham in the #19 Dodge took the front spot for 11 laps. Following Graham, 2nd place in NASCAR Canadian Tire Series points JR Fitzpatrick emerged to take the top spot on lap 91 gaining a valuable 5 point bonus for leading.

Involved in the first two cautions of the Kawartha 250, the #7 Dodge of Peter Shepherd appeared to be having a lousy outing at the 0.375 mile track. A young Canadian stock car driver limited to only a partial schedule this season, Shepherd started 6th in the event hoping to parlay some fast practice speeds into a solid race run. Despite being caught up in two incidents, Shepherd and his #7 car crawled back on both occasions placing himself into contention not only for a top-10 run but perhaps a victory. Several laps after a restart, Peter Shepherd launched past Fitzpatrick on lap 109 to lead for the first time in the Kawartha 250.

Transitioning through the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series finale, DJ Kennington was 11th and JR Fitzpatrick was 17th on lap 130 following a caution called for the #13 car of Trevor Monaghan. Through the final 120 laps, both drivers proceeded back into the top-5 for the final laps as Fitzpatrick run 2nd on track with Kennington in 4th. While Fitzpatrick's 2nd place position in the white flag lap wasn't effort to catch DJ Kennington in the points, insult to injury was added by the #02 Ford of Kerry Micks. Fighting for the runner-up spot into turn 4, Micks impacted with the #84 Chevy leading to Fitzpatrick's car spinning. With the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season starting at Delaware Speedway with Micks looping Fitzpatrick, some bad feelings fester on the impact as Micks takes the 2nd spot and the #84 of Fitzpatrick crosses the line in 15th place.

Winning the Kawartha 250 as a dark horse, Peter Shepherd led 124 of the race's 250 laps in his #7 Dodge taking the lead for the final on lap 214 en route to the checkered flag. Experienced in NASCAR south of the border when the Brampton native was hired by Roush Racing from 2006 to 2007, this win at the Kawartha Speedway is his first touring series trophy from a NASCAR-sanctioned event.

Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/NASCAR

Placed in 3rd in the final results in the Kawartha 250, DJ Kennington triumphed in the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship points. Taking honours 87 points ahead of JR Fitzpatrick at the end, Kennington and the #17 Dodge team celebrates a long-fought first national stock car championship. A mainstay the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series since the foundation in 2007, Kennington was more importantly long-time competitor in tour's predecessor series known as the CASCAR Super Series. Since the mid-1990s DJ Kennington campaigned a #17 Dodge with Castrol sponsorship starting as a very young driver. Still only 33 year old, Kennington is officially the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion.
In the final race of the season, Mark Dilley and Don Thomson Jr. rounded out the top-5. 6th through 10th consisted in the order of Scott Steckly, Jason Hathaway, Jeff Lapcevich, Ron Sheridan and Ron Beauchamp Jr.

Pete Shepherd: Need For NASCAR Speed

Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

In what would be the infancy of my interest in NASCAR, I remembered the near weekly visits to my local racing collectible store. Often spending less than 20 dollars on a simple die-cast, my visit was given gifted with the accompanying race talk with the storekeepers. With Formula 1 and other open-wheel series abundant with Canadian maple flags, the following for NASCAR dominated every conversation. One of the most memorable exchanges involved the name of one Canadian stock car prodigy winning late model races at Peterborough Speedway. The competing teenage driver, this NASCAR hopeful received an optimistic comparison to Jeff Gordon by the storekeeper. Keeping my ears opened since, five years later I heard prominent NASCAR owner Jack Roush compare this Canadian to driving like a young Mark Martin. That driver was Peter Shepherd, and the than 20 year-old's showing in Roush's Driver X talent contest for a truck ride would garner the Canadian racer acclaim amongst American motorsports. Falling just short of the coveted truck ride, Shepherd proudly accepted a development deal with Roush Racing to begin during the 2006 racing season.

A far way from native Brampton, Ontario, Shepherd's American racing career was born in 2006 at Homestead Miami Speedway wheeling the RE Technologies USAC Silver Crown racer, co-owned by recent Roush Racing sensation Carl Edwards. A departure from stock cars, Shepherd identified driving a Silver Crown car as “different”, riding paved ovals on the right rear tire through the corners. In spite of this different feeling, Pete Shepherd scored an impressive inaugural race finish of 7th place. Through the course of the Silver Crown season, Shepherd bettered that effort with a 3rd at the newly-built Iowa Speedway in September and a stunning 2nd two months earlier at the 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway. Shepherd says the ultimate lesson he gained from the Silver Crown machine the empathized importance in hitting your marks on the racetrack.



Blake Johnson/ R.E. Technologies

Proving proficiency with a 700 horsepower, 1,500 pound Silver Crown sprint car in just a few starts Shepherd was invited to run some ARCA/Remax stock car events. Along with a pair of tenth-place finishes, he recorded his season's highest result of fourth at Gateway International Speedway through a rough and wild race where he, even wearing his rookie stripes, endured without any noticeable race damage on his car. Weighing at 3400 pounds, the 750 horsepower ARCA stock cars are a far cry from the 550 pound lighter fiberglass-bodied race cars he wheeled in the CASCAR Super Series a year before in 2005. Now known as the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, Peter Shepherd speaks highly of his Canadian stepping stone commenting that the series treated him so well.

Completing a tri-fecta in American motor racing, Roush offered Shepherd some select races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, an inroad to the elite Nextel Cup series. For Shepherd, the 'banging wheels' terminology is a mere figure of speech considering his displayed driving style. “Put in laps and give the folks at the shop an easy time” he said were the only general instructions given.

Having parted with a few moments for an interview during a 2006 Silver Crown race at the newly-commissioned Iowa Speedway, Pete Shepherd spoke with the utmost professionalism as he expresses cautious aggression during his limited runs in top-notch machines. Within the brief privilege of speaking with this hot Canadian stock car racing prospect, his combined articulation of technical facts could pay dividends for a car chief's work while his poise, coupled with praise-filled tone, would please any big dollar sponsor. However, even with that well-rounded talent, a planned larger schedule in the NASCAR Craftsman truck series was largely scaled back by lack of sponsorship for 2007.

With 2007 highlighted early prepping Matt Kenseth's #17 Dewalt Ford during Daytona 500 testing, it would not be until the Milwaukee Mile's truck series race in June when Shepherd's 2007 season started. After four truck starts and selected ARCA starts, Peter was bitten twice by misfortune, marred by a rare Shepherd collision with another race vehicle at the truck race in Kentucky. Proving the end of an awkward set of races Pete will likely vanquish with better memories, a qualifying lap wreck in a very fast Roush-prepped Ford Fusion ARCA car caused him to miss that race altogether. In spite of frustrating events, Pete Shepherd bounced back, recording a personal best weekend in his limited NASCAR career came with a hard fought 15th place finish on the ¾ short track of Memphis Speedway during the 3rd of 4 races.

As an ominous note, Pete's short racing season ended in August of 2007 with Roush Racing later releasing him from the driver development contract. For a sport which depends so much on sponsorship dollars and bankable, American drivers, Pete Shepherd is unsettled so far for 2008. But probably Jack Roush's comparison to Mark Martin will prove as even greater comfort. While Mark Martin's first launch into the big leagues of racing fell flat, the second wind shown by that popular NASCAR driver acts to show the yet truly inspired life in Shepherd's career.
For Canadian Pete Shepherd, whether he is being compared to Jeff Gordon or being mentioned to possess the skills of Mark Martin, this 21 year old succeeds setting his benchmarks.