The NASCAR Pinty’s Series opens the 2022 season Saturday night with the NTN Ultimate Bearing Experience 250 at Sunset Speedway. The series returns to a traditional schedule for the first time since 2019 after pandemic restrictions limited competition to 16 races in Ontario and Quebec for the past two years.

This season will feature 13 races in five provinces on the most diverse tracks in NASCAR –Canada’s top short tracks, world-renowned road courses and street courses and the series’ long-awaited debut on dirt.

A strong field features upwards of 20 drivers who plan to compete full-time in 2022. Among them are reigning champion L.P. Dumoulin, Andrew Ranger and D.J. Kennington (who have eight championships among them), veterans Alex Tagliani and Kevin Lacroix, and up-and-comer Treyten Lapcevich.

Raphael Lessard, who will run all oval track races in the No. 8 Ed Hakonson Racing Chevrolet, swept both races at Sunset in 2021. The 21-year-old phenom has won three of his five career Pinty’s Series starts.