Max Papis

Massimiliano Papis Born (1969-10-03) October 3, 1969 Como, Italy Achievements 2004 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Co-Champion NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career 35 race(s) run over 3 year(s) Best finish 43rd - 2009, 2011 First race 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma) Last race 2010 Carfax 400 (Michigan) Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0 NASCAR Nationwide Series career 11 race(s) run over 7 year(s) Car no., team No. 33 (Richard Childress Racing) 2011 position 123rd Best finish 74th - 2008 First race 2006 Zippo 200 (Watkins Glen) Last race 2012 Sargento 200 (Road America) Wins Top tens Poles 0 3 0 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career 44 race(s) run over 4 year(s) 2011 position 18th Best finish 18th – 2011 First race 2008 Chevy Silverado 350K (Texas) Last race 2011 Ford 200 (Homestead) Wins Top tens Poles 0 4 0 Statistics current as of June 23, 2012. IndyCar Series career 3 race(s) run over 2 year(s) Best finish 26th - 2006 First race 2002 Indianapolis 500 (Indy) Last race 2006 Indianapolis 500) (Indy) Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 0 Champ Car career 113 race(s) run over 8 year(s) Best finish 5th - 1999 First race 1996 Miller 200 (Mid-Ohio) Last race 2003 Molson Indy Montreal (Montreal) First win 2000 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami (Homestead) Last win 2001 Honda Grand Prix of Monterey (Laguna Seca) Wins Podiums Poles 3 11 2 Formula One World Championship career Nationality Italian Active years 1995 Teams Footwork Races 7 Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Career points 0 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First race 1995 British Grand Prix Last race 1995 European Grand Prix

Massimiliano "Max" Papis (born October 3, 1969 in Como, Italy) is a racing driver who has competed in several top-level motorsports events such as Le Mans 24 Hours, Formula One and Champ Car. He has three Champ Car victories. He is the son-in-law of Emerson Fittipaldi. His son's godfather is fellow Italian Alex Zanardi. He currently drives the No. 33 Menards Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing on a part-time basis in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Personal life

Max Papis was born in a hospital in Como Italy to Italian parents. Papis was baptized at age 9 and he has confirmed his religion is Christian. He was raised in Italy and got an interest in car racing at a young age and started going to carnivals and golf places to race some go-karts where he got his driving talents. Papis won in several go-kart races and won several rounds for racing clubs in Italy. He graduated high school and moved from Italy to the Americas to enter F1 for worldwide racing. Max is married to Tatiana Papis and has two kids Marco and Matteo Papis. His BFF driver who raced with him in Formula 1, Alex Zanadri sponsored his kids when they were baptized in the Christian church as a godfather.

Formula One

Papis made his Formula One debut for Footwork at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

After a spell as the Lotus team's test driver in 1994, Papis replaced Gianni Morbidelli in the Footwork team for seven races in the middle of the 1995 Formula One season, as he brought valuable sponsorship to the cash-strapped outfit. Despite being a race-winner in Formula 3000, he often struggled with the unfamiliar car, and was occasionally outpaced by his much-maligned team-mate, Taki Inoue. He also proved to be an unlucky driver, suffering a spectacular puncture and suspension failure on his début race at Silverstone due to clipping the pit lane wall after a tire change, being left on the grid at Hockenheim due to a transmission failure, and spinning on dust and oil kicked up by David Coulthard at the Ascari Chicane on the first lap of the Italian GP, causing a pile-up and a restart. However, he only missed out on a point in the restarted race when he was overtaken by Jean-Christophe Bouillon's Sauber on the last lap. When Morbidelli returned, Papis was out of a drive and headed to America for 1996.

Champ Car

He moved to CART Champ Car racing in 1996 as a replacement for Jeff Krosnoff who was killed in the previous race in Toronto. In 1999 he joined the more competitive Rahal team, almost winning the US 500 before running out of fuel, and finishing 5th in the series. He broke his duck by winning the 2000 season-opener, but failed to finish in the championship top 10. In 2001 he won twice and finished 6th overall, but was dropped by the team, mainly due to two collisions with team-mate Kenny Bräck. He started 2002 with the Sigma team before they folded, and did a partial season with PK Racing in 2003, but has mostly concentrated on sportscars since 2001, remarking that "Champ Car needs me more than I need it" as the series struggled to fill its grid for 2003 after many teams defected to the IRL. Papis also raced in the 2002 and 2006 Indianapolis 500 races for Cheever Racing.

NASCAR

2011 Nationwide car at Road America

He made his NASCAR debut in August 2006, competing in the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen International Raceway for McGill Motorsports. He attempted to qualify for the NEXTEL Cup race but failed to make the race. He is also credited with having helped develop Toyota's Champ Car engine.

In 2007 he drove the #36 car in the NASCAR Busch Series for McGill Motorsports following the release of Tim Sauter from the ride. Papis made his Sprint Cup Series debut at Infineon Raceway in 2008, piloting the #66 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet in place of regular driver Scott Riggs. He was also scheduled to drive the #64 car for Rusty Wallace, Inc. on three road course races in the 2008 Nationwide Series. Haas CNC Racing hired Papis to drive the #70 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the course at Watkins Glen in the Sprint Cup Series in August 2008. He was announced as the driver of the #13 Geico Toyota in 18 races in the 2009 and a full time ride in the 2010 Sprint Cup.

In his first Cup season with a dedicated ride, Papis recorded a career best 8th place finish at Watkins Glen and 15th starting position at Fontana. He also recorded 12th place finish at Infineon Raceway.

After Watkins Glen in 2010 the team announced that Papis would be replaced by fellow driver Casey Mears for 2011 and Papis would race in the truck series for the team.

In 2010 Papis recorded an emotional entry into the Daytona 500 and ended up in the top thirty in the results. At Montreal when Papis started to drive for Richard Childress Racing with support from Kevin Harvick Incorporated he had a very good finish in his first race at Montreal of second place to driver Boris Said who he often gets along with. For the entire race Papis held onto other drivers in the top ten and soon on the final restart he passed Robby Gordon for an attempt to get 1st place; Boris Said got the first position first and for the entire restart Boris Said led the finish as Gordon ran out of fuel and stopped in the halfway mark of the track, giving Papis second place. On the final lap Papis passed Boris for first and as the fans roared he accidentally hopped over the "Fatal mistake" curb and thus Boris Said passed him and won against Papis in a drag race to the finish by 1 bumper. Papis did pocket a purse of over $100,000 in his finish and stated in his interviews his congratulations to Boris Said and that the race was the most exciting performance he has done on a NASCAR track. His car at the race was #33 having taken over the team and car from RCR driver Kevin Harvick for the Nationwide Series. When interviews were finished Papis walked to victory lane and hugged Boris to celebrate with his friend.

In 2011 Max Papis also raced in the truck series part time for KHI but mostly in the Geico Toyota in the #9 car and resulted in 18th in the standings as his good championship performance.

Papis seemed like that he had not enough support to continue in NASCAR after failing to win in the 2010 and 2011 NNS and NCWTS but got a ride with Richard Childress Racing to drive the #33 Menard's chevrolet in most of RCR's NNS races; for a multi-year deal, thus giving Papis new hope.

"Mad Max"

Papis earned the nickname "Mad Max" at the 1996 24 Hours of Daytona during his last stint at the end of the race. Although his second-place Ferrari 333SP had been battered due to collisions, some of its bodywork held together by tape, Papis unlapped himself by passing the race leader (the Doyle Racing Riley & Scott-Oldsmobile driven by Wayne Taylor) and proceeded to set some of the fastest laps of the entire race. Taylor was nursing his car around the track due to an overheating problem and otherwise would have been able to cruise to a win, but Papis' pace and the slowing Oldsmobile suggested that Papis could theoretically take the win from him. Papis' speed was achieved at the cost of maximum fuel consumption and although he drove down the pit lane at full speed to re-fuel (pit lane speed limits were imposed the next year), Taylor was still ahead by 64 seconds at the end of the race.

Career results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
1993	Vortex Motorsport	Reynard/93D	Ford Cosworth	DON 4	SIL Ret	PAU 5	PER Ret	HOC Ret	NÜR 15	SPA Ret	MAG Ret	NOG 6	10th	6
1994	Mythos Racing	Reynard/94D	Judd	SIL 7	PAU Ret	CAT 1	PER 4	HOC Ret	SPA 11	EST 13	MAG 6		6th	13

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1995	Footwork Hart	Footwork FA16	Hart V8	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 7	POR Ret	EUR 12	PAC	JPN	AUS	22nd	0

Complete American open wheel results

(key)

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
1996	Team Arciero-Wells	MIA	RIO	SRF	LBH	NAZ	500	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO Ret	ROA 9	VAN	LS Ret						26th	4
1997	Team Arciero-Wells	MIA 19	SRF 14	LBH Ret	NAZ Ret	RIO 13	GAT Ret	MIL Ret	DET 11	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR 15	MIC 8	MDO 14	ROA 15	VAN Ret	LS 14	FON 12					24th	8
1998	Team Arciero-Wells	MIA Ret	MOT 13	LBH Ret	NAZ 14	RIO Ret	GAT Ret	MIL 16	DET 18	POR 11	CLE 12	TOR 8	MIC Ret	MDO 14	ROA 11	VAN 9	LS 12	HOU 5	SRF Ret	FON Ret			21st	25
1999	Team Rahal	MIA 5	MOT 16	LBH 9	NAZ 13	RIO 4	GAT 5	MIL 13	POR 8	CLE 16	ROA 5	TOR 5	MIC 7	DET Ret	MDO 5	CHI 4	VAN Ret	LS 3	HOU 4	SRF 2	FON 2		5th	150
2000	Team Rahal	MIA 1	LBH Ret	RIO Ret	MOT 8	NAZ Ret	MIL 7	DET 2	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR 7	MIC 9	CHI Ret	MDO 4	ROA 7	VAN 8	LS 16	GAT 6	HOU Ret	SRF Ret	FON Ret		14th	88
2001	Team Rahal	MTY 12	LBH 17	FTW C	NAZ Ret	MOT 6	MIL 8	DET 11	POR 1	CLE 19	TOR 8	MIC Ret	CHI 13	MDO Ret	ROA 16	VAN Ret	LAU 2	ROC 11	HOU 9	LS 1	SRF 9	FON 2	6th	107
2002	Sigma Autosport	MTY 9	LBH 3	MOT 18	MIL 3	LS 13	POR	CHI	TOR	CLE	VAN												19th	32
	Fernández Racing											MDO 15	ROA	MTL	DEN	ROC	MIA	SRF	FON 14	MXC
2003	PK Racing	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LS	POR 15	CLE 12	TOR 16	VAN 9	ROA 4	MDO 9	MTL 9	DEN	MIA	MXC	SRF	FON C			17th	25

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Team Cheever	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY 23	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI						43rd	16
	Team Penske															TX2 21
2006	Cheever Racing	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY 14	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI						26th	16
2008	Rubicon Race Team	HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1	KAN	INDY DNQ	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	NC	-

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2002	Dallara	Infiniti	18	23	Cheever
2006	Dallara	Honda	18	14	Cheever
2008	Dallara	Honda	DNQ		Rubicon

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1997	Moretti Racing	Gianpiero Moretti Didier Theys	Ferrari 333 SP	LMP	321	6th	3rd
2003	JML Team Panoz	Olivier Beretta Gunnar Jeannette	Panoz LMP01 Evo-Élan	LMP900	360	5th	3rd
2004	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	GTS	334	8th	2nd
2005	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	GT1	347	6th	2nd
2006	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	GT1	327	12th	7th
2007	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Olivier Beretta	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	GT1	22	DNF	DNF
2008	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Olivier Beretta	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	GT1	341	15th	3rd

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	Italy	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR 19	USA FEA 7	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	14th	46

Touring Car racing

V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	Final Pos	Points
2012	Dick Johnson Racing	Ford FG Falcon	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	PER R7	PER R8	PER R9	PHI R10	PHI R11	HDV R12	HDV R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	SMP R18	SMP R19	SAN Q	SAN R20	BAT R21	SUR R22 16	SUR R23 12	YMC R24	YMC R25	YMC R26	WIN R27	WIN R28	SYD R29	SYD R30	NC	0 †

† Not Eligible for points

External links

• Official website
• Max Papis driver statistics at Racing Reference

Sporting positions
Preceded by Terry Borcheller	Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Champion 2004 (with Scott Pruett)	Succeeded by Max Angelelli Wayne Taylor