MONTREAL — Ron Fellows won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race for the first time since 2001 in what was a second-consecutive major NASCAR event dominated by the talk of tires.
Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve became the first NASCAR race ever run using rain tires, and the outcome was ugly.
Fellows, who won three consecutive events for the series at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l between 1999 and 2001, used his wet-weather road-racing experience to his advantage to post a victory at the track named for one of his driving heroes. It was his fourth career Nationwide Series triumph.
“That was difficult,” Fellows said as he climbed from the No. 5 Chevrolet fielded by Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s JR Motorsports. “We’ve had a little bit of that over in France with the Corvette at Le Mans.
“But this was good fun. Now I’ve got to make Dale, Jr. let me run next week (when the NASCAR Nationwide Series goes to Watkins Glen).”
The race, which was scheduled to go 74 laps, was mercifully stopped 25 laps short after competitors began spinning off course and crashing while circulating under the yellow flag.
The 48-year-old Fellows had pitted early on lap 22 and gradually worked his way to the front, taking the lead when Jacques Villeneuve, whose father is the namesake of the world famous road course, pitted on lap 42.
Patrick Carpentier, a native of Quebec, finished second for the second-straight year at the 2.709-mile road course. Carpentier gained ground after NASCAR red flagged the race on lap eight because of rain and required all cars to change from slicks to rain tires that featured a tread pattern designed to push water away.
“The rain tire — everybody had questions about it, but it worked,” Carpentier said. “I don’t know if I would have wanted to be out there on dry tires that were 9 years old, but the (rain) tires held up very well.”
Third-place finisher Marcos Ambrose led a race-high 27 laps, but a penalty for speeding on pit road deprived him of the chance to win.
“I’m bitterly disappointed,” Ambrose said. “I feel like we really dominated today’s race. I made an error down pit lane; I just couldn’t see the pit exit and we sped. I went down and had a look at it and it’s still hard to see. I’m just really disappointed. I feel like the race was our’s today and I tripped over myself.”
Ron Hornaday, Jr. ran fourth, followed by Boris Said, Carl Edwards, Jason Leffler, Greg Biffle, series point-leader Clint Bowyer and Scott Wimmer.
With the skies getting darker and visibility becoming a major problem, NASCAR called a halt to the proceedings after cars started wrecking under caution. Villeneuve was running sixth when he sustained severe damage to the front end of his Toyota, and minutes later, Joey Logano lost a fourth-place finish when he ran into the lapped car of Alex Garcia.