{"id":860488,"date":"2026-08-16T19:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860488\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:46:20","slug":"is-nascar-canadas-marc-antoine-camirand-the-alex-palou-of-his-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860488\/","title":{"rendered":"Is NASCAR Canada\u2019s Marc-Antoine Camirand the \u2018Alex Palou\u2019 of His Series?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryce Turner, of Inside Track Motorsports News, has found the \u201cAlex Palou of the NASCAR Canada Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a rare joint appearance with the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend\u2014on the 2.19-mile temporary street course in the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ontario\u2014NASCAR Canada showcased its three-time champion Marc-Antoine Camirand. He won Saturday\u2019s 40-lap overtime decision from the pole in the prelude to qualifying for IndyCar\u2019s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy race.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the kind of performance that led Turner to launch his own research about comparing Camirand to Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou.<\/p>\n

Turner compared Palou\u2019s and Camirand\u2019s racing results from 2021 to the present and discovered that the two racers have strikingly similar statistics, despite their respective motorsports\u2019 obvious differences.<\/p>\n

Entering this weekend, each is leading his standings, coming off back-to-back victories, and celebrating six triumphs so far this season. Palou has 25 career victories in 111 starts (for 25.77 winning percentage), Camirand 24 in 73 (33.33). Camirand has the laps-led advantage coming into Markham with 2,438 to Palou\u2019s 2,288. But Palou is ahead in podium finishes (50, 51.55 percent to 41, 56.16 percent) and top-five finishes (66, 68.04 percent to 51, 69.86).<\/p>\n

Former NFL defensive lineman embarking on stock-car career<\/p>\n

One of the most compelling stories in the NASCAR Canada series this season is new, part-time driver Jared Odrick in the No. 24 Ford Mustang. Odrick, 38, took an unusual route to auto racing\u2014by way of the National Football League and the film industry.<\/p>\n

The Miami Dolphins\u2019 2010 first-round draft pick as an All-America defensive end from Penn State, he played for seven seasons with Miami and the Jacksonville Jaguars. And this weekend, he\u2019s on the same \u201cplaying field\u201d as the NTT IndyCar Series.<\/p>\n

\"NFL:<\/p>\n

Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 football tough-guy responsible for 170 tackles and 23 sacks transitioned to acting, playing opposite Sylvester Stallone in Samaritan and portraying the Tooth Fairy in the short film, Filling In. His behind-the-camera work includes being a producer for the 2015 film Roller Coaster, and the driving force behind the 2023 NFL\/CTE documentary Am I Crazy? Now Odrick is carving out a career as a stock-car driver after establishing himself as road racer with an SCCA Runoffs GT2 championship (2023) and a Trans Am TA2 Pro-Am title (2025).<\/p>\n

He finished 15th in Saturday\u2019s 23-car line-up.<\/p>\n

Familiar faces to IndyCar fans on the NASCAR\/USF Markham undercard<\/p>\n

Former IndyCar racer Alex Tagliani, who competed in America\u2019s premier open-wheel series (then known as CART) beginning in 2000 and captured the Indianapolis 500 pole position in 2011, has been a regular in the NASCAR Canada Series since 2007. He earned his first stock-car victory in 2008 at the old Edmonton Airport Track in 2008.<\/p>\n

In his new venture, Tagliani has 12 victories in 123 starts, claiming 12 wins, 56 top-fives, 87 top-10s, 12 pole awards, and 1,779 laps led. He was not a factor in Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Sam Fellows, 32, son of racing legend Ron Fellows, was seeking his first NASCAR Canada victory this weekend but experienced made contact with the wall. He finished 21st.<\/p>\n

In the USF 2000 race Saturday, August 15, 2026, Oliver Wheldon \u2013 son of the late two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2005 IndyCar series champion Dan Wheldon \u2013 finished fifth in Saturday\u2019s first race of the series\u2019 doubleheader.<\/p>\n

Jack Jeffers\u2019 third USF Pro 2000 victory of the season in Saturday\u2019s Race 1 of 2 this weekend at Markham gave him the points lead with four races to go.
\n
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Susan Wade has lived in the Seattle area for 40 years, but motorsports is in the Indianapolis native\u2019s DNA. She has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with nearly 30 seasons at the racetrack, focusing on the human-interest angle. \u00a0She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, and Seattle Times. She has contributed to Autoweek as a freelance writer since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryce Turner, of Inside Track Motorsports News, has found the \u201cAlex Palou of the NASCAR Canada Series.\u201d In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,299409,784,237154,1642,634,299408,273948,82,299410],"class_list":["post-860488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-06266b73-0944-4a1f-8bcc-450bf28041ff","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-is-camirand-the-palou-of-nascar-canada","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports","tag-subsection-more-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}