Ron Fellows wins in the rain at Montreal

The main complaint I hear about NASCAR from ignorant people is that the cars run around in circles and only run in good weather. The NASCAR Nationwide Series made their second visit to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal today. That's right. It's the same track Formula One runs. This means we see a lot of road course ringers like Quebec natives Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, Andrew Ranger, Mississauga, ON native Ron Fellows and other road course specialists like Scott Pruett, Boris Said & Brian Simo. Pruett won the pole. NASCAR has always brought rain tires to road courses saying that they would run in the rain. But they've never had to do that...until today.













It was obvious before the race that rain was on the way. Aussie Marcos Ambrose took the lead and it started raining on lap 8. NASCAR brought all the cars into the pits and had them change to rain tires. They got going again and Ambrose continued to lead for a good part of the race. But Ron Fellows pitted on an early caution to get off sequence from everyone else. It turned out to be good strategy. When everyone else pitted, Fellows took the lead. Ambrose was penalized for speeding on pit road. Then it really started raining at lap 58 and NASCAR had to end the race early. The rain was so heavy drivers couldn't see through the foggy windshield. And Jacques Villeneuve & Joey Logano crashed during the caution because they couldn't see. It wasn't safe to race anymore. But it was certainly an interesting race.











This was Ron Fellows' fifth win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The other four wins were at Watkins Glen. You can be sure he will be in Watkins Glen next week. Patrick Carpentier finished second and Marcos Ambrose was third. I'm always glad to see Fellows win because he's Canadian. Canadian fans would love to see Fellows get a regular NASCAR ride but he's too old. But NASCAR drivers respect his ability. It was appropriate that Fellows was driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Fellows was a teammate of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the 2001 24 Hours Of Daytona and Dale Sr. had a lot of respect for Fellows. Dale Jr. continues that respect as a nod to his dad. I know Fellows would like to win a Sprint Cup race. Maybe he can do that next week. Here's ESPN's video report about the Montreal NASCAR Nationwide race.