Alex Tagliani

Alex Tagliani
Tagliani in 2015
Nationality	Canadian
Born	(1973-10-18) October 18, 1973 Lachenaie, Quebec, Canada
Awards	2009 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year
IndyCar Series career
73 races run over 9 years
Team(s)	No. 35 (A. J. Foyt Enterprises)
2015 position	37th
Best finish	13th (2010)
First race	2008 Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach)
Last race	2016 Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis)
Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 3
Champ Car career
131 races run over 8 years
Best finish	7th (2004, 2005)
First race	2000 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami (Homestead)
Last race	2007 Gran Premio Tecate (Mexico City)
First win	2004 Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America (Road America)
Wins Podiums Poles 1 14 5
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
8 races run over 6 years
Car no., team	No. 22 (Team Penske)
2016 position	56th
Best finish	39th (2014)
First race	2009 NAPA Auto Parts 200 (Montreal)
Last race	2016 Road America 180 (Road America)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 5 4
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
2 races run over 2 years
2015 position	91st
Best finish	91st (2015)
First race	2014 Chevrolet Silverado 250 (Mosport)
Last race	2015 Chevrolet Silverado 250 (Mosport)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 2
NASCAR Pinty's Series career
16 races run over 5 years
2013 position	45th
Best finish	19th (2008)
First race	2007 NAPA Autopro 100 (Montreal)
Last race	2016 Kawartha 250 (Kawartha Speedway)
First win	2008 Edmonton 100 (Edmonton Airport)
Last win	2016 Alberta Has New Energy 300 Edmonton International Raceway
Wins Top tens Poles 5 28 7
Statistics current as of September 18, 2016.

Alexandre "Alex" Tagliani (G pronounced in last name; born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional auto racing driver. He currently competes in the NASCAR Pinty's Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Impala entry for car owner Colin Livingston. He also competes on an intermittent basis in the Xfinity Series, Camping World Truck Series, and the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Champ Car career

Tagliani raced in the Champ Car series from 2000, when it was still known as CART, until its demise in 2007. He was signed by Forsythe Racing for the 2000 season replacing Greg Moore.

He came close to obtaining his first victory in his third start, after taking pole position at Brazil and leading most of the race, but spun out from the lead with nine laps to go.

In 2001 he was involved in the collision with Alex Zanardi at the Lausitzring that resulted in the loss of Zanardi's legs.

He remained at Forsythe until the end of 2002, when he was substituted by Paul Tracy. He found a job with the Rocketsports team in 2003, and remained there for the 2004 season, in which he earned his first and only Champ Car victory at Road America.

In 2005 he joined Team Australia, which was a rebranding of Derrick Walker's long-running team with the support of Australian businessman Craig Gore, and finished 7th in the championship despite lacking a race engineer. 7th would equal the best of his 3 top-10 championship finishes.

He returned to Rocketsports for the 2007 season, and finished 10th in points with a best finish of 4th in the first race of the season. He earned four pole positions during his Champ Car career.

Post–Champ Car career

IndyCar

In 2008, after the Rocketsports team decided not to take part in the IndyCar Series, Tagliani made the transition to stock cars and began racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. He also drove for Conquest Racing in the IndyCar Series Detroit Grand Prix, replacing the injured Enrique Bernoldi. Tagliani continued in the seat for the last two races of the season.

Conquest Racing announced that Tagliani would return as a full-time driver for the 2009.^[1] However, the team ultimately concentrated on road and street course races after the Indianapolis 500; ninth place in Toronto proved his best result. Tagliani left Conquest Racing after the 2009 Rexall Edmonton Indy race in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

It was announced on August 28, 2009, that Tagliani had signed a four-year deal with an option for a fifth year to drive for start-up FAZZT Race Team in the IZOD IndyCar Series beginning in 2010.^[2][3]

After a successful 2010 campaign with Tagliani, FAZZT Race Team was looking forward to an even more successful 2011 season, along with the possible expansion on the grid with a second entry. However, the team was purchased by Sam Schmidt on March 1, 2011,^[4] and was absorbed into Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Tagliani was retained, along with all sponsors, for a full-time entry during the 2011 season, racing alongside his new teammates Townsend Bell, Wade Cunningham, and Jay Howard.

In 2011, for the 100th anniversary of the first running of the Indianapolis 500, Tagliani qualified on the pole position with a four-lap average of 227.472 mph, besting Scott Dixon in the last run of the day. Unfortunately for Tagliani, he would run wide in turn 4 on lap 147 and make contact with the outside wall, inflicting damage upon the car which would force him to retire from the race the following lap.

To date, Tagliani's best finish in the Indianapolis 500 is tenth, which he achieved in 2010 while driving for FAZZT Race Team.

NASCAR

2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series car at Road America

Tagliani also ran selected races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, running four races between 2009 and 2012. In 2014, he announced that he would drive in two races in the series for Team Penske.^[5]

At Road America for the Gardner Denver 200, Tagliani won the pole position driving Penske's No. 22. Tagliani nearly won his first NNS race leading the second half. However, it was questionable with 10 laps to go if Tagliani had enough fuel. A caution came out before the final lap and just as the yellow period began Tagliani ran out of gas in the extended race and stalled at the start/finish line. Tagliani switched to dry (slick) tires with most of the field on wet tires (on a drying track); he restarted in 23rd place and recovered for second place.

Later in 2014 Tagliani was announced as the driver for Brad Keselowski Racing's No. 19 in the Camping World Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.^[6] Despite the race being his very first Truck Series start, he earned the pole position and led the first seven laps. However, he would finish the race in sixteenth.

Autodrome Chaudière 2015 - NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (Photo Paul-Émile Poulin-Jacques)

In 2015, Tagliani drove one race for Team Penske in the Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He earned the pole and was in contention for the victory, losing the lead in the second-to-final corner of the race after being hit by eventual winner Regan Smith. Two weeks later, Tagliani drove the No. 29 truck for Brad Keselowski Racing at Mosport, leading a total of 8 laps and finishing 5th after battling Erik Jones for the lead late in the race.

In 2016, Tagliani made a one-off appearance in the #22 for Team Penske at Road America in the Xfinity Series, and earned the pole for the race. He would lead 17 laps and score a seventh-place finish.

Sports cars

Tagliani has competed in sports cars since the mid-2000s. He finished 59th in GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT class points in 2007, with a best finish of 13th at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. In 2013, he drove driving a Ferrari GRAND-AM GT in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Later, Rocketsports Racing announced that it had signed Tagliani for the full 2014 United SportsCar Championship season to drive an Oreca FLM09.^[7]

Motorsports career results

Career summary

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

CART/Champ Car

• ^ New points system implemented in 2004

IndyCar Series

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

³ The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Alex Tagliani participating in the Pit Stop Challenge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 2015

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

Canadian Tire Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

Touring/sports car racing

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

V8 Supercar results

+ International driver, not eligible for points in 2010 format. Points listed is team points for driver Jason Bargwanna in the two races where Tagliani was co-driver for the #11 Kelly Racing Holden.

See also

• List of Canadians in Champ Car

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alex Tagliani.

• Official website
• Alex Tagliani driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Alex Tagliani at Driver Database