Full Throttle

With a pass for the lead on the final corner of the final lap of the Nationwide Series NAPA Auto Parts 200, Carl Edwards proved what has been suggested for the last three years.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is not Marcos Ambrose most favorite track. The Tasmanian Devil is jinxed, hexed and just plain screwed when it comes to venturing north of the border.

In 2007 at the same event it was Robby Gordon who robbed Ambrose of victory when he deliberately spun him after a late-race restart as the Australian was leading.

And last year it was weather and a pit lane speeding violation that cost Ambrose the win after he led for 27 laps and was clearly the pacesetter in wet conditions, but was in third position when the race was red flagged due to heavy rain.

Running on rain tires after a mandatory change for the entire field on Lap 61, Edwards hounded Ambrose for both laps of a green-white-checkered-flag finish and made the winning pass after Ambrose’s car got airborne over the curbing and lost momentum in the final turn of Lap 76.

When asked about his race he opined: “There’s not much to say. I made a mistake on the last corner, the last lap and lost the race because of it. It’s disappointing but you have to take the lumps as they come. I’m racing against some pretty awesome drivers in some great equipment.

We led a lot of laps and I’m starting to get annoyed with this track, to be honest with you. It just took forever, this race.”

A Nationwide Series record at 3 hours, 49 minutes and 19 seconds, I might add, thanks to 11 cautions, 31 laps run behind the pace car and many drivers acting as if on ice rather than wet tarmac.

“Carl (Edwards) put me under pressure at the hairpin. The track was probably a little damp there and my car just refused to turn. He got a great run down the back straight and it turned into a drag race. He was in that blind spot, that right rear, I didn’t quite know where he was so I braked as light as I did and out braked myself pretty much.

I couldn’t make the turn, bounced the curb and Carl (Edwards) just did the slingshot off the corner. It was pretty fundamental, it’s just hard racing at the end of the race. When you’re on the wrong side of it, it’s pretty tough.”

In collecting his third Nationwide Series victory of the season and the 23rd of his career, Edwards gave Roush Fenway Racing its first road-course win in the series.

“The two laps, Andrew Ranger (who finished third) and I went side by side into Turn 1 (on Lap 75),” said Edwards who trimmed the series points lead of 10th-place finisher Kyle Busch from 248 to 192. “He pinched me off into the grass—which I probably would have done if I was him, too—and I just drove into his door, and we came off of Turn 2 banging doors.

“It was wild, and I thought the whole time Marcos was going to get away with this thing. I broke away from Andrew, and I just gave it everything I had on that last lap, and Marcos just made that one mistake through the curves at the end and gave me the chance to get by.”

The fans who packed the grandstands and any other spot with a view of the track roared as Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., came in third and 1997 Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve finished fourth at the track named after his late father. The relative unknown Jean-François Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., was seventh.

Ranger took over second place on a re-start at the 70th lap, but the caution flag came out again a lap later. On the last re-start, Edwards edged past into second place, while Busch, who had been fourth, got caught up in a multi-car tangle on the ess-shaped Senna curve just after the start-finish line and dropped to 10th.

Villenueve jumped from eighth to fourth on the same incident. He grabbed the lead early when those ahead of him went to the pits during caution, but then gave it back when racing resumed to make his own pit stop. Villenueve said poor pit strategy cost him.

“But the re-starts were amazing — I could attack,” he said. “So every time there was a caution I was happy, although there’s nothing that’s not bent on the car.”

Patrick Carpentier of Joliette, Que., who finished second in each of the first two Nationwide events in Montreal, started 40th but was up into third place, challenging Villeneuve for second, when he blew his engine and was forced to retire after only 15 laps.

It is the only NASCAR event held outside the United States and it produced a rare statistic — three of the top five finishers were non-American.

NOTE: It’s been a year since the Herd Racing car’s been seen in the world of NASCAR.

Brett Rowe made a solid return, piloting the number 75 car to a 27th place finish at Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 200. Rowe kept the car spotless, avoiding the dangers of road course racing in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Sunday marked Rowe’s first foray on the Nationwide Series this season after barely missing the cut in his only other attempt at Watkins Glen earlier this month.