Paillé Racing looking to repeat as champs
Marc-Antoine Camirand and Paillé Racing started their quest to repeat as NASCAR Canada champions with a win in the opening race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on May 18. Courtesy Paillé Racing
After months of waiting, the 2025 NASCAR Canada series finally returned over the weekend with the Clarington 200 at historic Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Clarington, Ontario.
“It’s been a long few months off, everybody sort of loses touch a little bit during the offseason but right around this time of year, everybody’s getting back together,” said Nick McComber, front tire carrier and crewmember in charge of weight distribution and ride height for Paillé Racing, the team of defending champion Marc-Antoine Camirand.
The crew has two Kahnawa’kehró:non as part of it, McComber and car chief Soot Rice.
“It’s great to be back,” said McComber.
It certainly was a great race weekend for Paillé Racing, as Camirand started his championship defense by winning the Clarington 200, on a last-lap pass of Gary Klutt in the back half of the road course. The #96 Chevrolet only led one lap, but it was the most important one.
McComber said the car was well prepared by the crew all weekend.
“We had our time to practice and went out and had the car pretty much set up for Marc-Antoine for Sunday. We just had a little bit of work to do to get to the front, and on the last lap, we were there for the checkered flag,” said McComber.
Camirand qualified fourth of 28 entrants, less than four one-hundredths of a second slower than polesitter Kyle Steckly.
Despite only getting the lead with less than half a lap to go, McComber said the team was confident in the two-time champion’s ability to win the race.
“Marc-Antoine is great at road courses, and the car setup was great from last year’s win,” said McComber. Camirand also won the opening race last year.
“About halfway into the race, we fell back a couple of positions, and we came in for a final pit stop, changed the right-side tires and made a couple of adjustments, sent the car back out, and the car really responded well. He came up and gained a bunch of positions.”
With the first win of the season, McComber said they are on the right track to repeat as champions.
“Coming out from the last championship last year, we have a very strong chance of winning back-to-back championships, which would be a historical event, because in this series, nobody has ever won back-to-back championships. We think we have a great chance of doing it again, and hopefully we can pull it off,” said McComber.
Indeed, while multiple-time champions are not rare in the NASCAR Canada series - Camirand is one of four multiple-time champions since the series started in 2007 - no one has ever won in back-to-back years.
If Camirand will be the first to do it, he and his team will need more races like the Clarington 200.
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“We’re just hoping to have a great season and as many wins as we can,” said McComber.
The next race on the calendar for the NASCAR Canada series will be at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee-Jonction, Quebec, for the first oval race of the season, the Bud Light 250.
