Alex Tagliani

Alexandre Tagliani (born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver.

He competes full-time in the NASCAR Canada Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing.

Tagliani has competed in a variety of disciplines including open-wheel, stock car, and sports car racing.

He has raced in the Atlantic Championship, Champ Car, IndyCar Series, NASCAR Pinty's Series, and NASCAR Xfinity Series.

This is among the collection of open-wheel cars he drove from the 1990s to modern day, and continues to do so, with less frequency into the 2020s.

Tagliani debuted in the Atlantic Championship in 1996 with P-1 Racing, where he finished seventh in the overall points standings.

Switching to Forsythe Racing, he finished third in 1997, fourth in 1998, and fourth in 1999, claiming two wins in each season.

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 seventh in the championship despite lacking a race engineer.

The seventh-place finish would equal the best of his three Top 10 championship points finishes.

He returned to Rocketsports for the 2007 season, and finished 10th in points with a best finish of fourth in the first race of the season.

He earned four pole positions during his Champ Car career.

Alex, along with many other 2007 Champ Car Drivers, has stated the Panoz DP01 was "one of" the best American Open Wheel Racers he ever drove during his career.

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 season.

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.

Tagliani has run selected races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2009.

That year he entered the Montreal and Phoenix rounds with Pat MacDonald.

In the mid 2010s his career began a focus on "Stock Car Racing" rather than a large frequency of open-wheel.

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.

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

However, the team was purchased by Sam Schmidt on March 1, 2011, 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.

He drove at Montreal in 2011 for Team Penske and 2012 for Steve Turner.

He did not enter any race in 2013.

In 2014, Tagliani announced that he would drive in two races in the series for Team Penske.

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.

His best performance was arguably the 2016 event when he charged hard from 33rd starting position to lead 11 laps, matching a record set by Tom Sneva in 1980.