Canapino began his racing career in 2005, debuting in the Renault Mégane one-make touring car series with no prior racing experience. He achieved race wins in 2006 and claimed the championship title in 2007. He debuted in TC 2000 in 2007 and in Top Race and TC Pista in 2008, winning the TC Pista championship that year.
In 2010, Canapino won both the TC and Top Race Torneo Clausura championships. He dominated Top Race between 2011 and 2017, winning all championships with a Mercedes-Benz prototype except for the 2015 season, which was won by Matías Rodríguez.
In 2019, Ricardo Juncos of Juncos Racing invited Canapino to participate in the 24 Hours of Daytona in the DPi class. Alongside Will Owen, René Binder, and Kyle Kaiser, he finished eighth in class. He also raced at Sebring that year. Canapino was awarded the Olimpia de Oro in 2018, recognizing him as the best Argentine sportsman of the year, an honour he shares with Juan Manuel Fangio. He also received the Olimpia de Plata award four times.
In October 2022, Juncos Racing announced that Canapino would participate in demonstration runs in Argentina with an IndyCar, followed by a private driver evaluation test at Sebring. Following this, he was confirmed as a driver for Juncos for the full 2023 IndyCar championship, partnering Callum Ilott. He debuted at St. Petersburg, qualifying 21st and finishing 12th, the last car on the lead lap. He also participated in a mandatory oval rookie test at Texas Motor Speedway before the second round of the season, where he finished 12th again.
During the 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Canapino retired after contact with the turn 5 wall while attempting to lap teammate Callum Ilott. This incident sparked abusive messages, including death threats, directed towards Ilott from Canapino’s fans on social media. IndyCar and Juncos Hollinger Racing both released statements condemning the abuse. Further incidents occurred at the 2023 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, where Ilott again faced abuse from Canapino fans following a collision. Juncos Hollinger Racing released a statement, and Ricardo Juncos blamed Ilott for not ignoring the threats, contributing to Ilott's departure from the team. A third incident at the 2024 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix resulted in death threats towards Théo Pourchaire, prompting condemnation from Arrow McLaren, JHR’s alliance partner. Canapino responded with a statement denying the threats and “liked” posts mocking Pourchaire. This led to Arrow McLaren terminating their technical partnership with Juncos Hollinger Racing on 6 June 2024, and Canapino taking a “leave of absence” from the team, being replaced by Nolan Siegel for the XPEL Grand Prix of Road America before returning for five more races before leaving the team.
Canapino’s father, Alberto Canapino, a race car mechanic and preparer, died on 15 February 2021, from COVID-19. His younger brother, Matías, races in TC Pista as of 2023.
This article is based solely on the provided corpus. No external sources, including primary archives, autobiographies, period programmes, or specialist publications, were consulted.
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