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Tag: Patrick Carpentier

  • Mike Shiplett to reach 150 Cup starts as crew chief at Bristol

    Mike Shiplett to reach 150 Cup starts as crew chief at Bristol

    A significant milestone is in the making for Mike Shiplett, crew chief for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender and Rookie-of-the-Year recipient Cole Custer. When the Cup Series competes in this weekend’s Playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Shiplett will call his 150th race in NASCAR’s premier series as a crew chief.

    A native of Amherst, Ohio, Shiplett grew up working on street stock cars for local short track racing with his uncle before he raced his prepared street stock across Ohio at age 16, eventually moving up to late model stock cars. He went on to attain a degree in diesel technology at the University of Northwestern Ohio in 1992. Afterwards, he joined Liberty Racing as a mechanic in the American Speed Association in 1995, which made the eventual move to the NASCAR Truck Series.

    In 1998, Shiplett moved to North Carolina and worked as a car chief for the No. 75 Butch Mock Motorsports team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. Following the 2000 season, Shiplett joined forces with Ultra Motorsports in 2001 and continued to work as a car chief. Two years later, he joined Evernham Motorsports and another four years later, he worked as a crew chief for Evernham’s Xfinity Series program. Working with seven competitors in the 2007 NASCAAR Xfinity season, Shiplett won his first two NASCAR career races as a crew chief with Kasey Kahne.

    In 2008, when Evernham Motorsports became Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, Shiplett was named a full-time NASCAR Cup Series crew chief for the No. 10 Dodge team that started the season with Patrick Carpentier, the 1997 CART Rookie of the Year and Champ Car competitor from LaSalle, Quebec, Canada, behind the wheel. The 2008 season marked Shiplett’s first as a Cup crew chief. From 2008 to 2009, Shiplett worked with five different drivers (Patrick Carpentier, Terry Labonte, Mike Wallace, Reed Sorenson and A.J. Allmendinger) while remaining with the team that became Richard Petty Motorsports in 2009. In August 2008, Shiplett served as a crew chief for Carpentier for the NASCAR Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he finished 25th. Following the 2009 season, Shiplett called 66 Cup career races.

    In 2010, Shiplett worked as a full-time Cup crew chief with Allmendinger and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford team. Together, Allmendinger and Shiplett achieved a pole position at Phoenix Raceway in April, two top-five results and eight top-10 results as Allmendinger concluded the season in 19th place in the final standings. Following the 2010 season, Shiplett reached 100 Cup races as a crew chief.

    For the first 19 Cup races of the 2011 season, Shiplett remained as crew chief for Allmendinger and the No. 43 RPM Ford team as Allmendinger earned one top-five result, four top-10 results and was ranked in 16th place in the standings following the recent Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. Afterwards, Shiplett was replaced by Greg Erwin for the remainder of the season and Allmendinger went on to conclude the season in a career-best 15th place in the final standings.

    In 2012, Shiplett scaled back to the Xfinity Series and worked at Turner Motorsports. He served as a crew chief for 23 Xfinity races while working with Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet, both of whom split driving roles in the No. 38 Great Clips Chevrolet. He also served as a crew chief for Kahne in the Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway in April, where Kahne went on to win.

    From 2013 to 2014, Shiplett rejoined Richard Petty Motorsports and was involved with the team’s research-and-development program. He also served as an Xfinity Series crew chief for Corey LaJoie in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November when LaJoie made his series debut.

    In 2015, Shiplett rejoined the Xfinity Series and worked as a crew chief for HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi Racing and the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro team driven between Kyle Larson, Justin Marks and Brennan Poole. Shiplett remained with the organization when the No. 42 car returned only under the Chip Ganassi Racing banner in 2016. From 2015 to 2018, Shiplett won a total of 15 Xfinity races between Larson, Marks, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and John Hunter Nemechek.

    After Chip Ganassi Racing’s Xfinity program shut down due to sponsorship woes, Shiplett joined Stewart-Haas Racing to serve as crew chief for Cole Custer and the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang team. Together, Custer and Shiplett had great success all season long as they achieved seven victories, six poles, 17 top-five results, 24 top-10 results and an average result of 9.0. In the end, however, Custer and Shiplett finished in second place in the final standings behind the champions Tyler Reddick and crew chief Randall Burnett of Richard Childress Racing.

    Following a successful 2019 Xfinity Series season, Stewart-Haas Racing named Shiplett as a full-time crew chief of the No. 41 Haas Ford Mustang driven by Custer for the 2020 season as Custer entered this season as a Rookie-of-the-Year contender. Through the first 16 Cup races of this season, Custer and Shiplett achieved one top-five result, two top-10 results and were ranked in 25th place in the regular-season standings.

    The following race at Kentucky Speedway, however, Custer took advantage on a two-lap shootout and made a bold four-wide pass for the lead on the final lap and against names like Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. to achieve his first Cup career victory in his 20th series start. The win was also Shiplett’s first in the Cup level as the victory guaranteed Custer, Shiplett and the No. 41 team a spot in the 2020 Cup Playoffs. Custer and Shiplett went on to achieve three additional top-10 results throughout the regular-season stretch. By the time the 2020 Cup Playoff field was set following the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway in August, Custer was named the 2020 Cup Rookie of the Year since he was the lone rookie candidate to make the 16-car Playoff field.

    Through the first two Cup Playoff races of this season, Custer and Shiplett achieved 12th- and 14th-place results at Darlington Raceway and at Richmond Raceway. Currently, Custer is eight points below the top-12 cutline and is one of four competitor who are on the brink of elimination from title contention entering this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    Catch Shiplett’s milestone start at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, September 19. The race will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • Canadian stars shoot for victory in Montreal

    Canadian stars shoot for victory in Montreal

    [media-credit name=”nascar.com” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Skimming through the entry list for this weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal one may find a few names that jump off the page.  What do Ron Fellows, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Tagliani, and Patrick Carpentier all have in common this weekend?  They are all accomplished road course racers that venture into the NASCAR scene on rare occasion.  When the Nationwide Series makes its annual stop in Montreal, the four aforementioned drivers come to make an attempt at winning in their home country.

    Carpentier has returned from retirement for the NAPA Auto Parts 200 on August 18th, competing again in Michael Waltrip Racing’s #99 NAPA Toyota Camry entered by RAB Racing.  The five time CART winner has seen varying success at his home track.  In the inaugural running of the race in 2007, Carpentier grabbed the pole and finished 2nd.  The following year, Carpentier earned another runner-up finish at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

    The next three races in Canada saw the Quebec native encounter misfortunes.  In 2009, Carpentier finished 38th due to engine troubles.  In 2010 and 2011, the MWR driver came across the start finish line 32nd, both due to mechanical troubles.

    Carpentier enters the weekend not only looking to turn his bad luck around, but to obtain an elusive victory in front of his home fans.

    Jacques Villeneuve has competed around the circuit named after his late father ten times in Formula 1, none of which the 41 year-old Canadian was able to achieve victory.  Though Villeneuve has been exceptional in qualifying for the Montreal race (three top-five starts in four attempts), he has an average finish in Montreal of 12.5 on the circuit that lays along the St. Lawrence river.  Driving the #22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger owned by Roger Penske brings high expectations for Jacques.

    “I feel, after winning the pole last year at Montreal,  that we can have a lot of success. A NASCAR victory is something I want.”  Villeneuve says of his potential with Penske Racing.

    With the IZOD IndyCar Series being off this weekend, Alex Tagliani is taking the opportunity to race for a third time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.  In only having two NASCAR Nationwide Series starts in Montreal, Tagliani has experienced both good and bad performances. In 2009, the 39 year-old Montreal native finished 26th for MacDonald Motorsports.  In last year’s event, Tagliani capitalized on his Penske Racing ride to finish 2nd.

    This year “Tag” will be racing Turner Motorsport’s #30 Chevrolet.

    “I’m always proud to come back to Montreal and to be able to race on this fantastic road course named after one of my all-time racing heroes, Gilles Villeneuve.”  Tagliani says when speaking to nascar.com.

    “Montreal has been good to me to date and I’m hoping to better my racing history here.  Having a competitive car to challenge for the win is all I can wish for. ”

    Back in June, the #30 Turner Motorsports team went to victory lane on the first road course race of the season at Road America.  Nelson Piquet Jr. piloted the car to victory that day earning his first ever NASCAR Nationwide Series victory, Tagliani will look to mimic Piquet’s feat this weekend.

    After claiming a victory on his home soil in the 2008 rain shortened iteration of the NAPA Auto Parts 200,  Ron Fellows has seen a streak of bad luck come his way.  The year after his victory Fellows failed to complete the race due to a crash in turns 8 and 9, yielding him a 35th place finish.  In 2010, the Ontario Native experienced engine troubles and placed 30th in his home race.

    With the highest of highs and lowest of lows making up the 52 year olds past in a Nationwide car at Montreal, Fellows is gunning for a new high in his Nationwide Career.  Adding a second victory in his home country would provide the road course specialist with just that.

    In the five year history of the NAPA Auto Parts 200, only Ron Fellows has earned the thunderous applause of his home country’s crowd by going to victory lane.  Ironically, of the four Canadian stars heading into this weekend’s race, Ron Fellows is the only one born outside of the province of Quebec.

    For the diehard Canadian race fans, a keen eye will be on all Canadian’s participating in Montreal this weekend, but only a victory from a Canadian road course star from inside the borders of Quebec will prove to be a moment of true greatness for them.