NASCAR on TV this week

Trent Hindman, Stevan McAleer Win CTMP 120

Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman chose an alternate strategy Saturday (July 13) and took the lead when leader Jaden Conwright stopped for fuel under the final caution. From there, Hindman made his fuel hold off to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120 with Stevan McAleer.

“IMSA wins are so special,” Hindman told NBC Sports’ Ryan Myrehn after the race. “Stevan’s first stint was mega [to get us up] to second and hanging with the leaders. What a great call from the guys on the pit box. They made my job very easy today.”

See also
Slipstream Saturdays: Sergio Perez Has Got To “Go”

Hindman and McAleer’s margin of victory was 2.537 seconds over Van der Steur Racing’s Scott Andrews and Rory van der Steur. TeamTGM’s Paul Holton and Matt Plumb were third, then CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Francis Selldorff were fifth.

Hattori Motorsports’ Jack Hawksworth started from pole and got a huge jump on the field. He was unable to make much use of it.

In turn 2 on the first lap, Winward Racing’s Bryce Ward was hit from behind by Czabok-Simpson Motorsport’s Sebastian Carazo. Ward then spun and nosed into the wall to bring out the first caution of the race.

Ward was able to drive his Mercedes back to the pits. However, the contact was enough to puncture the radiator, ending his day.

Once the green came back out, Hawksworth slowly inched away from McAleer. Eventually, Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada got past to take second.

For the next 20 minutes, Hawksworth and de Quesada traded quick laps. The overall effect was that Hawksworth maintained a 1.5-second lead.

Both leaders made their pit stop 55 minutes into the race. Conwright and Jesse Lazare got into the cars in place of Hawksworth and de Quesada. Overall, their stops were right in the middle of the sequence, while others stopped earlier and later.

Once the sequence was complete, Conwright came out of the pits with the lead. He held that until TWOth Autosport’s Justin Di Benedetto ran out of fuel and coasted to a halt on the Mario Andretti Straightaway. That brought out another yellow.

The leaders all dashed into the pits for a splash of fuel to guarantee that they could make it to the end. Lazare was able to jump Conwright in the pits. Meanwhile, Trent Hindman, who was 24 seconds behind at the time of the caution and stopped one lap after de Quesada and Hawksworth, chose to stay out and took the lead.

Lazare and Conwright ended up back in ninth and 10th but had a six-lap advantage on fuel compared to Hindman. However, the two dominant cars weren’t really able to go anywhere after the restart.

At the front, Hindman slowly increased his advantage over van der Steur Racing’s Scott Andrews. Fuel was always going to be a factor for those who stayed out, but the Rennsport One crew noted that

In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Harry Gottsacker started on the pole and managed to drive away from the rest of the class with JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller. The two drivers opened up a 15-second lead on third in a hurry, then got to fighting among themselves.

Miller took the lead away from Gottsacker, but Gottsacker got the advantage back when Miller ran afoul of the Aston Martin of Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind. Miller ran in the back of Blind in Moss Corner, spinning out the No. 45. When this happened, Gottsacker moved to the inside to retake the lead. No penalty was assessed for the contact.

Gottsacker’s lead was short-lived as Miller was able to retake the advantage just a couple of laps later. The 15-second lead ended up dropping to eight seconds over Sam Baker before increasing back up.

When it was time to pit, Miller pitted first for tires, fuel and to get Mikey Taylor in the car. Gottsacker pitted a lap later to swap over to Robert Wickens.

Wickens got out of the pits first and managed to hold off Taylor before the second caution came out.

On the restart, Taylor got a run exiting turn 3 and took over the lead. Wickens attempted to come back on Taylor a lap later but was unable to make his run stick.

The caution allowed the rest of the TCR pack to get back to the leaders. Montreal Motorsport Group’s Karl Wittmer and Baker Racing’s Dean Baker were right in the hunt.

However, Taylor’s day ended with 26 minutes to go when he pulled off at Moss Corner after having lost forward drive in his Audi. The DNF for Miller and Taylor will significantly shake up the points as they entered the race with a 220-point lead.

With Taylor’s troubles, Wickens got the lead back in his Hyundai. Wittmer was right on his tail, though.

Wittmer pressed Wickens for the lead for a number of laps. However, Wickens proved to be too much as he pulled away just enough to hold on for the win. It is Wickens’ first class win in two years.

Gottsacker and Wickens’ margin of victory was 0.723 seconds over Wittmer and Daijiro Yoshihara. Bryan Herta Autosport’s Preston Brown and Denis Dupont were third, followed by teammates Taylor Hagler and Bryson Morris. The father-son team of Dean and Sam Baker were fifth in their hometown race.

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120 Unofficial Results

Pilot Challenge teams will take a couple of weeks before returning to action in August at Road America. The Road America 120 is scheduled to go green on Aug. 3 at 2:45 p.m. ET. The race will air live on Peacock.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.