Montreal racing fans could soon have a new event to put in their mouths during the summer at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. And that’s good, according to former Quebec driver Patrick Carpentier.
Montreal’s premier stock car series, the NASCAR Cup, could indeed be added to the 2024 season schedule at the earliest, according to a Sports Business Journal (SBJ) article published earlier this month. .
The NASCAR series has already presented a stage of the Xfinity series – a series lower than the NASCAR Cup – on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit between 2007 and 2012. The experience had however been abandoned, among other things, due to the modest interest at the ticket office for the event.
The NASCAR series would therefore be in discussions with Montreal leaders so that an event will be reborn in the metropolis next year, indicated the SBJ citing numerous sources familiar with the discussions.
Carpentier also believes that there is room in the Montreal market for the holding of two car races each summer. The proof having been made with the presentation of the tests of the Xfinity series.
“F1 is hyper, hyper, hyper popular; it’s the sporting event of the summer in Montreal, Carpentier admitted immediately. But you know, I’ve always wondered if there’s room for a hockey team in Las Vegas, and my answer has always been “no.” Well, watch them go: they just won the Stanley Cup and it’s packed every game!
“There is room for a second race in the summer in Montreal. It’s not aimed at the same clientele. If I compare the F1 enthusiast to the NASCAR enthusiast; one of them loves wine, and the other loves beer,” continued with a laugh the one who is now an analyst of F1 events at the Sports Network.
Rumors of the NASCAR series returning to Montreal aren’t new, but they’ve intensified lately. Right at the time of the Grand Prix of Canada, this weekend.
Already, last February, the director of operations Sean O’Donnell had indicated the series’ interest in adding NASCAR Cup events in Canada and Mexico, as part of an expansion plan aimed at increasing its visibility on the international scene. We now know, according to the SBJ, that Montreal would be one of the targeted cities.
“Negotiations are ongoing and have not yet been completed, so they could stall or cause the presentation of these races to be postponed beyond 2024,” the SBJ warned in its article.
On the side of the team of the promoter of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada, the position has not changed regarding the return of NASCAR to Montreal.
“We are always ready to discuss, but on condition that it is for a NASCAR Cup event”, was limited to saying François Dumontier’s publicist, Sandrine Garneau-Lebel.
For his part, Carpentier is excited to see stock-cars running in Montreal again. However, he warns that the event’s marketing team will have a lot of work to do to arouse the interest of Quebec racing fans in the NASCAR Cup.
“It had been hyperpopular when the Xfinity series came along. But the reason it was popular was because there were three or four Quebec drivers on the track — Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Tagliani and Andrew Ranger, in particular,” the elderly ex-driver said. 51, who notably finished second in Montreal in the Xfinity Series in 2007 and 2008.
“Right now, the problem with NASCAR is that it’s very, very, very national (American), he continued. And there are no Canadians in the NASCAR Cup. […] So, yes I would like that, it would be super cool”, but I wonder how we are going to manage to add a local pilot in there. »
In addition, Carpentier pointed out that NASCAR series cars have evolved greatly over the past few years. They would no longer fit into Senna’s “S” like real bowling balls, as they did in his day.
“Cars are very different these days. There are independent suspensions, the gearbox is semi-automatic. The NASCAR Cup car looks much more like the DTM series car. And by the way, the NASCAR series brought one to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and it didn’t look bad at all. The NASCAR Cup car finished somewhere in the middle of the field, out of the sixty entered. And it was about two seconds faster per lap than the GT3. Really, it’s a much more sophisticated car than before,” he said.
As to whether he would one day be interested in trying his luck in the NASCAR Cup if he had the opportunity, Carpentier did not hesitate for a second.
“I would need a few days of testing, to get used to the car, but I wouldn’t say no,” he summed up, laughing.
The NASCAR series has yet to reveal its schedule for the 2024 season.
