Toronto (Ontario), July 16, 2023 – It was Toronto’s turn to host the NASCAR Pinty’s field in the city streets. Thomas Nepveu shone at the renowned Toronto Indy event last Friday, in front of thousands of spectators and supporters.
The driver of the #24 Evirum | Home Hardware car had an exceptional start to the day, kicking off the busy Friday with a practice session, followed by qualifying immediately after. He went on to qualify sixth, marking his best qualifying in the series so far this season, and securing him a start from the third row for the main event that took place later that afternoon.
As the green flag waved to kick start the 35-lap race, Thomas was immediately going wheel to wheel through the narrow turns. He battled it out on track with Treyten Lapcevich, the current championship leader, as the two went side by side across multiple laps.
As he continued to charge towards the Top 5, the action was momentarily halted as the yellow flags came out on lap 7. As the field prepared to restart just 5 laps later, misfortune struck for Nepveu as the race returned to green. He lost positions on the restart as he suffered an electrical issue, resulting in the car losing power. He was then rear-ended by a competitor, resulting in another full course caution as Nepveu’s car suffered too much damage and had stopped on track before being assisted back into the pit lane. The team was able to fire back up the car to let Thomas join the track and finish the race in 18th place.
“On the bright side, I’m very happy with how my qualifying went,” said Thomas Nepveu. “I’m disappointed with the race result, but the car had great pace and I think we’ve made great steps forward. It’s a shame that we were dealt some bad luck, but hopefully it will turn around and we’ll be ready to try again.”
Despite the unfortunate outcome, Nepveu showed great promise and will be ready to challenge the pointier end of the field once more in his next event.