Aug. 30, 2020, Milverton, ON, CANADA – Although this was the NASCAR Pinty’s Series first ever visit to Flamboro Speedway, fan-favourite J.R. Fitzpatrick made the most of his hometrack to bring the #24 PartyCasino.fun Chevrolet Camaro home in 6th in the Pinty’s 125 and earned a podium finish with a third in the PartyCasino.fun 125.
The response to the announcement that Fitzpatrick would be returning to the NASCAR Pinty’s Series was overwhelmingly positive from fans, the media, and drivers alike. The full reveal of his #24 PartyCasino.fun Chevrolet Camaro Saturday morning garnered an equal amount of positive feedback.
Although Fitzpatrick commented that his car looked like it was ready for a car show he was there to put it to work around Flamboro Speedway’s 1/3-mile paved oval just outside of Hamilton.
Leading up to the Shake Down Session spotty light rain moved through briefly delaying the session. The 32 year old resident of Cambridge Ontario quickly found his footing in the #24 PartyCasino.fun Chevrolet Camaro earning fourth fastest in the session right behind teammate Alex Tagliani in the #18 machine.
In the draw for the starting lineup for the Pinty’s 125 Fitzpatrick drew second spot on the grid giving him a front row view to the first corner. Fitzpatrick held onto second place until just over the halfway point. With 43 laps to go running in third the #24 PartyCasino.fun Chevrolet Camaro was spun out. Still on the lead lap Fitzpatrick would work his way back up to finish sixth in the first of the day’s twin-125s.
After a short break it was time to set the grid for the PartyCasino.fun 125, which would see Fitzpatrick start from eighth. He methodically worked his way up to fifth, then fourth and then by lap 75 he was in contention for podium finish and held onto third place till the checkers flew for the PartyCasino.fun 125.
“The cars are a lot different than I remember. I have some work to do on my driving with these cars because they’re so much heavier. The racing was so close – I was just as good as the leaders on the short run, but the front runners seem to be a bit better in the middle part of the run.” said Fitzpatrick
He went on to say: “Thanks to PartyCasino.fun for trusting me to represent them and thanks to 22 Racing and Scott Steckly for the opportunity.”
NASCAR Pinty’s Series fans can follow J.R. Fitzpatrick on twitter at @J_R_Fitzpatrick, on Facebook at J.R Fitzpatrick and on Instagram at @jrfitzpatrick.
The Pinty’s FanCave Challenge, a special six-race, three-track series, will conclude Saturday, Sept. 12 at Jukasa Motor Speedway in Hagersville, Ontario.
The Pinty’s 125 will air on TSN on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 4:30 p.m. ET, and the PartyCasino 125 will air on TSN on Saturday, Sept. 12 at noon. Each race also will air on RDS/RDS2, and MAVTV in the United States. Fans in the United States can stream races after they air on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.
For live updates from each race weekend, fans can follow a live timing and scoring feed on Race Center on NASCAR.ca. The official social media channels of the Pinty’s Series (@NASCARPintys on Twitter and @NASCARPintysSeries on Facebook) will provide behind-the-scenes coverage of each day at the racetrack. For updates please visit: NASCAR.ca