A 1996 Atlantic season that rewrote the record books, five Champ Car and IndyCar wins, and a late career in NASCAR.
Patrick Carpentier is a former Canadian driver who won five Champ Car and IndyCar races and took two third-place championship finishes. He is also known for a 1996 Atlantic season of record-breaking wins and a short NASCAR career in 2007 and 2008.
Patrick Carpentier is a former Canadian racing driver who won five races and 24 podiums in Champ Car and the IndyCar Series. He is best remembered for a 1996 Atlantic season that broke every record in the championship's 25-year history, and for later starts in sportscars and NASCAR.
His open-wheel career ended after the 2005 season. He then raced on the stock car and sportscar circuits, worked as a television commentator and later ran a construction business in Quebec.
Who is Patrick Carpentier?
Carpentier was born on 13 August 1971 and is a Canadian former professional driver. He won five races and 24 podiums across Champ Car and IndyCar, and he finished third in the championship twice, in 2002 and 2004. He announced his retirement in 2011, after a long career that included part-time NASCAR starts.
Nine Atlantic wins from twelve races in 1996, then five Champ Car and IndyCar wins and a late run in NASCAR.
How dominant was Carpentier in the Atlantic series?
Carpentier started out in Formula Ford 2000 Canada before moving up to the Player's Toyota Atlantic Championship in 1992. He signed with Lynx Racing in 1995 and scored his first team victory on the streets of Bicentennial Park in Miami. He won again on the Nazareth Speedway oval, but mechanical problems blighted the rest of that season.
The 1996 season was a different story. He shattered every record in the series' 25-year history, winning nine of twelve races, eight of them in a row, and eight of those from pole position. He set new marks for most wins in a season, most consecutive wins and most laps led, and his 239 points were the most accumulated in a season.
He also led every lap of the Grand Prix Molson du Canada meeting from green to checkers. That season broke the long-standing records set by Gilles Villeneuve and carried Carpentier into the major league of American open-wheel racing.
What did Carpentier achieve in Champ Car?
After his Atlantic title, Carpentier won a ride with the Bettenhausen/Alumax team in CART, beating several veteran drivers in a test at Sebring. He debuted in CART in 1997, taking pole at Nazareth, finishing second at the inaugural Motorola 300 at Gateway and earning Rookie of the Year honours.
In 1998 he moved to Player's Forsythe Racing, which had expanded to run a second car alongside Greg Moore. Moore died in the season finale, the Marlboro 500 at Fontana, and Carpentier became Forsythe's leading driver when Alex Tagliani joined the squad, keeping it an all-Canadian operation. Injuries kept him out of races in his early years, some of them caused away from the track.
His first Champ Car win came in 2001 in the Harrah's 500 at Michigan, his 79th start. He made a last-lap pass on Dario Franchitti in what was the final CART-sanctioned Michigan 500. He followed it with two wins in 2002, at Cleveland and Mid-Ohio, and finished third in the standings. In 2003 he was fifth overall despite winning at Monterey.
Why did Carpentier leave open-wheel racing?
Carpentier kept his seat for 2004 and retained the Monterey win, finishing higher than teammate Paul Tracy in the standings. He then left Forsythe for the 2005 season, joining Eddie Cheever's team in the IndyCar Series. Its Toyota engines were not competitive, so he finished tenth in the standings. He collected two third places and eleven top-tens in seventeen races.
The 2005 season was his last in open-wheel racing. In a 2016 interview he said the Chicagoland crash of Ryan Briscoe into the catch fence had helped drive his decision to retire, and the 2003 finale crash of Kenny Brack at Texas had also played a part. Over nine years in CART and IndyCar he recorded 85 top-ten finishes and 24 podiums.
What did Carpentier do in sportscars?
Carpentier first drove a Crawford-Lexus DP03 for Eddie Cheever in the 2006 Rolex 24 at Daytona. He then took sixth at the CASCAR Super Series event at Cayuga Speedway, and he ran a partial season in Grand-Am with SAMAX Motorsport, driving a Riley Mk XI.
In 2007 he drove a Daytona Prototype for SAMAX alongside Milka Duno or Ryan Dalziel. Their highlight was second place in the Rolex 24, finishing on the same lap as the winner after leading for 121 of the 668 laps. His last race for SAMAX was the 400 km Montreal, which he finished tenth in August 2007.
How far did Carpentier get in NASCAR?
Carpentier made his Busch Series debut at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 4 August 2007. He took pole and finished second behind Kevin Harvick, while Robby Gordon was disqualified for wrecking Marcos Ambrose. A week later he made his Nextel Cup debut at Watkins Glen, starting 40th and finishing 20th after leading seven laps.
In 2008 he drove the No. 10 Dodge full-time for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. On 27 June he took the pole at New Hampshire, becoming only the second non-American driver to qualify on pole in the series. He led the first four laps of the race but was later hit by brake problems and finished 31st. His best Cup result was 14th at the Coke Zero 400 on 5 July 2008. Gillett Evernham released him that October.
His part-time NASCAR work continued after 2008. On 9 June 2009 Michael Waltrip Racing announced that he would take over the No. 55 NAPA Toyota from team owner Michael Waltrip for two road-course races, at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. He also drove a number of races for Tommy Baldwin Racing, and in 2010 he ran several events for Latitude 43 Motorsports.
In 2011 he tried to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 for Dragon Racing, after Scott Speed could not get the car fast enough on bump day, but he could not make the field. On the stock car side he drove a few Sprint Cup races for Frank Stoddard's team.
He made intermittent starts afterwards, including the Indianapolis 500 qualifying attempt in 2011 for Dragon Racing, which failed. In 2016 he returned for two races for Go FAS Racing, finishing 37th at Sonoma after a blown tire and 34th at the Brickyard 400.
| Season | Series | Team | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Toyota Atlantic | Lynx Racing | Nine wins from twelve races; 239 points |
| 1997 | CART | Bettenhausen/Alumax | Rookie of the Year; second at Gateway |
| 2001 | CART | Forsythe Racing | First Champ Car win, Harrah's 500 at Michigan |
| 2002 | CART | Forsythe Racing | Two wins; third in the championship |
| 2005 | IndyCar | Cheever Racing | Tenth in the standings; two third places |
| 2007 | NASCAR Busch | Various | Pole and second at Montreal |
| 2008 | NASCAR Sprint Cup | Gillett Evernham Motorsports | Pole at New Hampshire; best finish 14th |
| 2016 | NASCAR Sprint Cup | Go FAS Racing | 34th at the Brickyard 400 |
What did Carpentier do after retiring?
In 2013 Carpentier joined RDS, the French-language sports channel, as a colour commentator for its NASCAR coverage. He had found it hard to step away from racing, and he said he needed to stay close to the sport. Before that he had worked in home renovation, buying and selling property in Nevada during his years as an active racer.
In January 2012 he said he would race the Montreal Nationwide Series round to raise money for children's charities, starting 13th and finishing 29th. He also tried rallycross. In 2014 he finished sixth overall in the first World RX of Canada event at Circuit Trois-Rivieres, driving a Volkswagen Polo, and he finished fourteenth in the 2015 event. He was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2021, and he now runs a home construction firm in Quebec.
