SAINT-EUSTACHE, Quebec – It was a perfect weekend for Jason Hathaway.
After welcoming his son Maxson, early Friday morning, Hathaway promised he would bring a trophy home for his newborn son. Hathaway delivered on that promise in dominant fashion, winning the Lucas Oil 250 at Autodrome Saint-Eustache.
Similar to Hathaway’s first win of the season, it came down to a duel between himself and Kevin Lacroix. Taking the lead on Lap 166, Hathaway’s No.3 Kubota Canada Chevrolet held off all who challenged him and claimed his second win of the year and 11th of his career.
“It was a crazy weekend how it all turned out,” Hathaway said. “Had a baby boy early Friday morning, drove here on two hours sleep. Practiced Saturday and raced Sunday and we took home the trophy.”
Prior to today, Hathaway had a career best finish of fourth at Saint-Eustache, back in the 2010 season. With all that has happened in the Stouffville, Ontario driver’s life during the past 72 hours, this win is one of Hathaway’s most special victories.
“This is one of those stories you could never line up even if you had to,” added Hathaway. “I promised my little guy that I had a trophy coming back to the crib when I get home, the boys delivered, it’s awesome.”
Hometown favourite, Kevin Lacroix will leave Saint-Eustache a happy man. Lacroix started on the provisional pole and led 42 laps en-route to a runner-up finish. The No.74 Bumper to Bumper team fought tooth and nail to get around Hathaway but in the end Lacroix would finish with a two point lead heading into Loudon.
“The goal today was to finish ahead of the No.27 [Ranger],” Lacroix said. “I was hoping to get closer to Jason to give him his Riverside bump, but he was too fast today.”
Lacroix, whose race shop is located five minute down the street from Saint-Eustache, scored his best career finish in the final kick of the can at his home track.
“Definitely happy for him [Hathaway], it was an awesome job,” Lacroix added. “But we are really happy with our second place today.”
Despite running around mid-pack all race long, Andrew Ranger turned on the jets in the in closing laps. Making a bold move to get around a dominant Alex Labbe, the Roxton Pond, Quebec driver would settle for his seventh podium finish of the season.
For Labbe’s No. 36 team, it had been a while since he had a truly dominant run. Leading 123 laps, Labbe would bring his Hotel Le Concorde Ford home in the fourth position for his fifth top five of the season. Donald Theetge would complete the top five.
The finish:
Jason Hathaway, Kevin Lacroix, Andrew Ranger, Alex Labbe, Donald Theetge, D.J. Kennington, L.P. Dumoulin, Kerry Micks, Marc-Antoine Camirand, Mathieu Kingsbury, Scott Steckly, Simon Dion-Viens, David Michaud, Brandon White, Mark Dilley, Joey McColm, Todd Cresswell.