The news almost came as no surprise to many of
Patrick Carpentier's fans. Patrick lost his ride with Gillett Evernham Motorsport yesterday meaning that Mike Wallace will drive the No 10 Dodge next weekend at the Lowe's Motor Speedway and by A.J. Allmendigner for the rest of the season.
Actually, Patrick hoped to drive the car for the rest of the season though his future with the Gillett Evernham team seemed gloomier by the day. Patrick was expecting to return with
GEM next year until he learned that Reed Sorensen was hired to drive the No 10 Dodge while the team was looking for sponsors for a fourth car. As hard as he tried, Patrick, who did well in qualifying the car in almost all the races except the one in Bristol and the last one at Talladega, could not do better than run way in the back of the pack at each race. He was not even a contender in road racing, a specialty that was expected of him. Following a failed qualification in Talladega last weekend, he was yelled at by his crew chief Mike Shiplett, also a rookie in Sprint Cup, though he was the fastest of the three drivers in the GEM team. That probably was the last straw. Or is it because Carpentier had warned us that he might be running the Nationwide series next year? Patrick's people have been in discussion with other teams for the last few weeks. It seems that there might still be some kind of hope for him. Everywhere, commentators praise his driving skills. Not being of American origins (he bears both the Canadian and the American nationalities) has been brought up as the difficulty to find him a major sponsor. And yet, American motorsports analysts have praised him as being one of the greatest qualifiers and being probably the best rookie coming from open-wheel racing this year. He even had a pole position in Loudon! So had GEM given him the proper ride? At any rate, even GEM's two other drivers, Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler are not doing well this year. Was the No 10 Dodge the right choice for Carpentier?What will happen to Patrick Carpentier? He has his mind made up of being a full time NASCAR driver and chances are he will make it whether it is in the Craftsman (to be Camping World) truck series, in Nationwide or in Sprint Cup. At any rate, he deserves a better car than one of GEM's rides. That is if the American economy does not cave in until then!
photo: Philippe Champoux - Auto123.com