Year-end review with Kevin Lacroix

NAPA: We’d love to have your take on the 2023 season, because you had your ups and downs, not least with the accident.

KL: I hate to say it because it was my first full year with NAPA, but it was my worst year in terms of performance, luck and final standing. I had a lot more bad luck than good, but it was great to get the win at the end of the year and finish the season on a high note.

We got off to a good start, even though we’re never overly happy just being in the top five. I think for the first four or five races, we were always in the top four or five. That’s good, but then the second half of the season was full of bad luck.

NAPA: If you look at the whole season, which event affected you the most?

KL: Of course, it’s still Trois-Rivières. That’s the race where we want to perform best, but we didn’t even make two corners.

NAPA: Were you scared? Did you think, “That’s it; it’s all over”?

KL: It definitely crossed my mind. Because I’ve had accidents bigger than that in my life, but often accidents are things you don’t see coming. They happen so fast, and then, crash bang, and it’s all over. In this case, however, I knew in advance that it was a brake failure.

So, sure, it’s scary when it happens, but at the same time, I saw it coming and I was airborne. I could see the sky, and of course, it’s a city circuit, so I imagined myself flying over and landing on the road, with the regular cars [laughs].

It didn’t have a big impact. I had some stiffness in my lower back, but it was more fear than injury, that’s for sure. I could feel it coming, and the whole time, I knew I had a brake problem. I guess I was hoping the brake pedal would start working again. It plays on your mind to have made a big mistake like that, to have taken a risk that was actually unnecessary.

Of course, when I think about it, I think it was a bit stupid to keep going, but at the same time, it’s rare for brakes to fail on the first lap. That’s just breakage, not wear and tear, and I’ve never seen that.

Sometimes, when we change the brakes, the mechanics do what we call “bleeding the brakes,” and there are air bubbles in the oil, which stops the pedal from responding. I hoped that was it, and I pressed down on the pedal, hoping the bubble would pass and the pedal would come back. But when it’s a bubble, the pedal is a little mushier, not completely “gone.” Deep down, I wasn’t surprised when the accident happened, so I was angry at myself for making the wrong decision.

NAPA: Did you talk to the other guy (Andrew Ranger)? Are the two of you okay?

KL: Yes, he’s 100% okay with it. Especially when he saw my cockpit video, which shows me trying on five or six things.

NAPA: We haven’t seen that one. We saw the video of the accident, but not the cockpit video.

KL: That’s unfortunate, because on the Internet, the accident had 130,000 views on Instagram, so I wrote to the camera person, and the next day, he put up the cockpit video, which has, like, 500 views.

But the people involved know, because you can see in the video that I’m trying the brakes a bunch of times and not one of them works. The fact remains that it’s a mechanical failure that never happens.

People thought I was an aggressive driver, but an aggressive driver will push, whereas I completely destroyed his car. There’s a difference between the two. […] When you see the front-facing camera, you can’t really see the deceleration, but I saw another angle from someone in the stands, and there you can see everyone braking, the cars pushing on, and me holding steady. […]

It’s a shame for him since his season, like mine, was so difficult. For him, it was hell: he had all the bad luck in the world, it seems, the whole time.

NAPA: Now that the season is over and it’s November, almost Christmas, how does a NASCAR driver feel when his season comes to an end? Put everything away and forget about it?

KL: Well, when I have a bad season … We had interviews with TSN. They did The Year In Review  and asked me questions like, “Race number 1: This happened, that happened, and so on.” I can’t remember. When things aren’t going well, I press the delete button [laughs].

I move on pretty quickly, especially when the season has gone as badly as this. At the same time, it’s a mix of many things: luck, mistakes on my part and mistakes made by the team. And anything that doesn’t concern me, I have no control over, so it’s easy to forget. What does concern me, I think about longer, of course. I’m still thinking about the Trois-Rivières accident; everything else, I’m not.

The people there were laughing at me because I was having trouble. I’m not in great shape: I’m a father now, like many adults, and in NASCAR, you don’t need to be in great shape. Karting is extremely hard. I’d go to practice, do five or six laps and then stop because my arms were toast, and the race is 20 laps.

I wasn’t at the same level as them in terms of results in practice, but before the race, I kept telling them, “The race […] is a different game.” As it happened, I wasn’t the fastest, but I went from 22nd to 2nd, so I was the one laughing at them. It was fun. It gets the adrenalin pumping, as you say.

At the same time, with the business, we’re working really hard. With the stores, Dany and I are two young guys, and we don’t need to be pushed. We’re able to push ourselves and put pressure on ourselves, so we experience adrenalin in a different way.

NAPA: During the season, you have stricter lifestyle habits, but when the season ends, poutine? Pizza?

KL: Well, I never stop [laughs]. That’s my daily diet. The canteen at the store just has poutine and pizza, so that’s what I eat: Monster Pizza. A lot of coffee and a lot of Monster Pizza – I have to cut that out. It’s not the best thing.

I’ve got a family. We run a business. And I’ve got the racing. My son races and plays hockey. I have joint custody, but when it comes to sports, even if it’s not my week, I’m the one who goes to hockey with him, so I never stop. So, taking care of my spare tire … I should do it, but …

I noticed it at two races this year, where I was out of shape. In Toronto, I finished 2nd because of it; I gave up in the last few laps. In the last two laps, [the leader] slowed down and I had an opportunity. We reach the end of the straight, and I’m side by side with him. I braked, like, 150 feet too early. Every lap, we brake in the same place. At the very end, it’s time [to overtake]. I have to brake a little later, or at least in the same place as usual, but no. It’s totally a lack of concentration. I braked way too early, so he went on to take first easily.

NAPA: Are you thinking about working out?

KL: I think about it every Sunday [laughs], and then every Monday is the Monday after.

NAPA: It was NAPA’s first year with you. Did we help you? And if so, how?

KL: It was definitely positive all around. First, I think the car looks better [laughs]. That’s important. And second, it’s great to have people involved. It’s great to have people engaged and excited.

I also think that the series likes it when companies get involved like this, because we get a bit more exposure and they focus on us a bit more. Especially in races like Trois-Rivières, they’re more careful about what they say.

Sometimes I see commentators taking an athlete and putting him down without really knowing what’s going on. It’s happened to me before, so I’m a bit more sensitive about it. I’ve been through it myself, and I’ve seen other athletes fall victim to it, and I was glad that in Trois-Rivières, they were more lenient with the comments. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re paying attention to image, since there’s a new partner for the car. That helped me, too.

NAPA: When do you start preparing for the 2024 season?

KL: Already started. We’ve already included the whole team. Me, personally, a little less so. The rest of the team at the moment are mechanics: Sylvain, my father, and Adam, the car preparer, are full-time. They’re working on the modifications on the new cars for next year. We’re working hard. We’re making good changes, and that should be beneficial. We went looking for someone very knowledgeable.

Also, what NAPA has done to help us, there’s the business side. That’s a very different story. Of course, we had some big challenges at the start. It was a big adjustment, but the people side at NAPA, all the support, is incredible.

NAPA has a great organization. We’ve picked up some good key people to support Dany and me in management. Because before, everything went through me or Dany. Now, we have a good team in each store: we have a manager, an assistant manager; we have two senior managers who each manage three stores, and an operations manager, so that helps us a lot.

NAPA: Where did you find time for racing before?

KL: We did a bit of everything, but 100% of nothing – 100% of the time was used, but nothing was finished [laughs].

It’s true that we have bigger operations, so it’s more work in total, but the work isn’t in the same places. We’re always busy and always short of time. I think everyone is short of time in life, but NAPA helps with that; the whole organization of the stores is going well. That’s one of the reasons we made the change; we knew it was more structured as a company.

NAPA: What are you hoping for in 2024?

KL: What am I hoping for? No bad luck [laughs]. Because we take care of the performance. Normally, we have that covered, so it’s just bad luck, being lucky.

That’s what our NASCAR season is all about: every year, some drivers have bad luck, and one driver has no bad luck and wins the championship. Because the way the points system is set up, when you finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th, there’s not much difference; it’s one point per position. But when you have a mechanical breakdown, you’re in last place, and you’ve just lost 20 points. In Trois-Rivières, there were 32 cars, so I lost 31 points.

We just hope to finish all the races, and on the performance side, we’ll make the difference. Wish us good luck. More than in 2023.

NAPA: But you’re still there for your son.

KL: Yes, but it’s all the time we don’t have at the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the year; that’s what we didn’t have. […]

That’s why I go to hockey games with him and his karting races, and he’s started soccer, too. That’s why I go with him, even if it’s not my week.

NAPA: So, like father, like son when it comes to adrenalin?

KL: Maybe I’m pushing him a bit, but he’s more outgoing, a team guy. He’s not the type to play hockey alone in the back yard. When I was young, I was by myself, doing my own thing. Even racing is a more individual sport. Sure, overall, it’s a team sport, but on the track, it’s individual. And he’s racing, but I don’t think he’ll try to go very far. It’s really, like, the team for him; that’s what’s important. And that’s okay. He’s having fun, and he goes off with his friends, but I’m just the father … [laughs]. The important thing is that he’s happy.

Also, I want to keep him busy. It’s great to go to the park sometimes, but there are so many things going on. I try to get him out a bit, take him to hockey, take him to soccer, and take him with friends who like to be active.

So now, he’s starting to develop a real interest in soccer, and he wants to play outside.

NAPA: Maybe a nice outing to see SF Montréal.

KL: I went three weeks or a month ago. And right now, I’m paving over the yard, my whole lawn at the back [laughs]. My wife wasn’t too happy. I’m getting the whole thing paved, and we’re going to have an area with a hockey net, and I’ve got nets, too.

NAPA: You have to keep the kids happy sometimes.

KL: Well yes. He’s 10; that’s when it happens. Probably when he’s 14, we’ll remove it all because he’ll have moved on. […] So that’s why I’m going to set up the back yard. But as soon as it’s finished, the snow will start falling. So it’ll be ready next winter.

NAPA: Are you going to make a rink?

KL: I’m going to try.

NAPA: With the hockey net, it would be great.

KL: I won’t have had time to set up the nets yet. The neighbours … I’ll send my wife to get them some Tim Hortons before they play. It’s that time [laughs].

We’re grateful to Kevin and the whole Tuning Lacroix team for a great afternoon!

See you next year!