(born
June 26 ,
1962 ) is a
NASCAR driver from
Shelburne, Vermont . He is currently driving for
Front Row Motorsports . Lepage is the only NASCAR driver from
Vermont to qualify for the
Daytona 500 .
Lepage, one of the few NASCAR drivers from
New England , spent the 1980s driving in both the
Busch North series and the
Vermont -based
American-Canadian Tour series. He drove with occasional success in these series for the better part of 14 years.
Lepage made his
Busch Series debut in 1986 at
Oxford Plains Speedway , starting 41st and finishing 15th in the #09
Buick . He became a Busch Series regular in 1994, serving as an owner/driver in the #71
Vermont Teddy Bear Company car. He had a best finish of 9th at
New Hampshire International Speedway , and finished 24th in points. The next season
(1995) , he had five Top 10's and finished 18th in points. At the end of the season, he lost his sponsorship and he ran his own car unsponsored until April. Lepage then joined
David Ridling and his #88 Ridling Motorports team with sponsorship from Ridling's own
Farmer's Choice Fertilizer . He won his first career race at the season finale
Jiffy Lube Miami 300 . He finished eighth in points with 1 win, 3 Top 5's and 10 Top 10's. The next season ((
1997 ), he ran most of the year for Ridling before leaving due to team losing its sponsor
Hype . Lepage would finish out the year running for
Phoenix Motorsports and
ST Motorsports . He finished 12th in points, posting 3 Top 5's and 6 Top 10's. Lepage had his Cup debut by qualifying for the Fall Charlotte race in the #91
LJ Racing car in an impressive 12th. He would also run the Fall Talladega and Atlanta races with a best finish of 17th at Talladega.
Lepage made the move to
Winston Cup Series in
1998 , driving for the now-defunct
LJ Racing team. Despite the team's lack of sponsorship, Lepage posted two fourteenth-place finishes, catching the eye of
Jack Roush of
Roush Racing . Lepage announced his decision to depart LJ Racing in late
June 1998 and sat out 6 races to work out the details of the new contract with Roush. He would drive the #16
Primestar Ford Taurus in place of
Ted Musgrave , who was released after Lepage's hiring. He earned a pair of top-10 finishes in 13 races for Roush, his best finish being a sixth place at
Charlotte . Despite missing several races, he nearly won the
Rookie Of The Year title. Lepage also drove in the Busch series for Doug Taylor's # 40 team with sponsorship from
Channellock . Lepage finished 14th in points despite only starting 24 races out of 31. Lepage won his second career race at the August
Food City 250 at Bristol and won his first career pole at the June
MBNA Platinum 200 at Dover. He finished the year with 1 win, 6 Top 5's and 10 Top 10's.
Lepage returned in
1999 with sponsorship from Primestar which switched to
TV Guide in April after Primestar was sold to
General Motors owned
DirectTV . He had two top-tens and won the pole at the season-ending
NAPA 500 , earning him a 25th-place points finish. Lepage also ran in the Busch Series driving the #99
J&J Racing /
Brewco Motorsports car with sponsorship from
Red Man Chewing Tobacco . He finished 35th in points with 14 starts, 2 Top 5's and 6 Top 10's.
He began with sponsorship from Red Man,
Southern Pride Chewing Tobacco and
State Fair Corn Dogs . He finished 42nd in points with 10 starts, 1 Top 5 and 2 Top 10's.
In 2001 Lepage returned to the Busch Series to run his own team, , driving the #71 State Fair Corn Dogs Ford. Running 15 races, he had one top-five, four top-tens and a pole at
Kansas Speedway . He also returned to the Cup series, running the #4
Kodak Chevrolet for
Morgan-McClure Motorsports , replacing
Robby Gordon after five races. Late in the season, he switched to the #7
Ultra Motorsports Ford, posting a tenth-place finish at
Talladega Superspeedway .
Early in
2002 , Lepage's team went inactive due to a lack of sponsorship eventhough he had an 8th at Daytona and a 4th at Las Vegas, but he soon joined
Brewco Motorsports , driving their #37
Timber Wolf Chevy. In 24 starts that year, he had six top-tens and two poles, finishing 25th in points. He also ran three Cup races, two in the #38
Quest Motor Racing Ford, and another for
BAM Racing at Talladega in a car sponsored by
Billy Ray Cyrus . His best finish that year was a 40th at Loudon.
In
2003 , Lepage ran his own team at the Cup level for one race, finishing 32nd at the
Coca-Cola 600 . He ran two races that year for
CLR Racing , where he had a fourth place start at
Michigan , before returning to Morgan-McClure to finish the year, his best finish a fourteenth at
Atlanta . He teamed with Morgan-McClure again in
2004 , but after six races, Lepage departed due to a lack of sponsorship. He then signed with
Competitive Edge Motorsports , posting a best finish of 41st twice, before leaving the team. He ended the season with
R&J Racing , where he had a best finish of 27th at
Phoenix International Raceway . He also ran eleven races in the Busch Series for
MacDonald Motorsports , where he had two top-fifteen finishes.
In
2005 , Lepage returned to R&J, and started the season off with a third-place finish in the
Gatorade Duels and a ninth-place finish at the
Daytona 500 . Unfortunately, the closest Lepage came to another top 10 was a 12th place finish at
Lowe's Motor Speedway in the
Coca-Cola 600 , and was released from the ride after the
Brickyard 400 . He signed with
Peak Fitness Racing for the balance of the year, and had a sixth-place qualifying effort at Kansas. He also ran six races with MacDonald in the Busch Series as well, posting a ninth-place finish at Lowe's.
Lepage returned to Peak for 2006ear, but due to a lack of funding, the team was sold to
Front Row Motorsports in April. Lepage ran a couple of races for FRM before leaving for BAM Racing. He ran 12 races for BAM with a best finish of 21st at
Bristol before leaving them. Lepage then rejoined Front Row Motorsports making two of the final eight races in their #34 and #61 cars. He also ran a limited schedule in the Busch Series for
Mac Hill Motorsports with a best finish of 19th in seven races. At he end of the year, Lepage sold the remnants of Matrix Motorsports to start a lawncare business called
Matrix Lawn And Landscaping .
In 2007, Lepage started the year driving the #34 Front Row Motorsports car in the races where the team could afford to run two cars. Starting in late April, Front Row would mainly run the #37 car with Lepage making most of the attempts. He will also drive a part-time schedule for a few teams in the
Busch Series including the #52
Means Racing Ford, as well as some additional races for
Randy MacDonald and
D.D.L. Motorsports .
