Carpentier to Sub for Kahne in Vegas Nationwide Series
"Kasey was feeling absolutely terrible yesterday with a real bad sinus infection," said Mark McCardle, Vice President of Competition for GEM. "After the first practice, we knew we might have to do something to allow Kasey the time to get better for Sunday's race. It became more evident as the day went on, so we went with Patrick to drive the Nationwide race.
"As of this morning (Saturday), we were glad to hear Kasey is feeling and getting better. He has been taking fluids and getting plenty of rest. We have Jason Keller on stand-by if we need to go that route, but we're pretty sure Kasey will be good to go tomorrow."
Carpentier, who normally pilots the No. 10 Valvoline Dodge for GEM in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, made his first race of the year qualifying 12th for Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400. He jumped into the No. 9 Wisk Dodge for Saturday morning's NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying session without any practice laps and qualified 29th.
"I was very proud of Patrick on how he did getting in that car with no time behind the wheel here," McCardle said. "I waited until after he qualified the No. 10 Valvoline Dodge on Friday before I approached him about driving the Nationwide car. His response was, 'Really?! You want me to drive the No. 9 Dodge on Saturday?!' You would have thought I brought him the best Christmas present ever with how excited he was to drive the car.
"After he qualified 12th for the Cup race, he was already on cloud nine so this makes it even better for him."