Fogarty takes pole for Montreal 200; Edwards 8th
August 28, 2009
MONTREAL (AP)—Jon Fogarty has won his third straight Grand-Am Rolex pole atthe Montreal 200.
Fogarty turned a lap of 105.734 mph at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Friday.
It was the fourth pole of the season and 12th of his career for Fogarty, whoco-drives the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley with AlexGurney. Scott Pruett will join Fogarty on the front row after a lap of 105.721mph in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley co-driven by MemoRojas.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards, who will share the No. 77Aflec/iRacing.com Ford Dallara with fellow Cup driver Marcos Ambrose, qualifiedeighth.
Pruett and Rojas lead Fogarty and Gurney 248-244 in the standings going intoSaturday’s race, the 10th in 12 stops.
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Hamilton fastest in Belgian GP practice (PA SportsTicker)
August 28, 2009
By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Auto Racing Writer
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium(AP)—McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fastest in practice Friday for the Belgian Grand Prix, where Red Bull looked poised to cut into Brawn GP’s Formula One championship lead.
Defending F1 champion Hamilton lapped the 4.352-mile Spa-Francochamps circuit – the longest on the calendar – in 1 minute, 47.201 seconds during the afternoon session.
“I’m definitely not unhappy but I know it can be better,” Hamilton said. “I don’t think we’re fastest. But it’s looking much better than we anticipated.”
Hamilton, coming off a victory at Hungary and a second-place finish at the European GP, was one of two drivers not to be classified during a rainy morning practice.
Toyota’s Timo Glock was second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, with both drivers a fraction of a second off Hamilton’s pace.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was fourth – 0.128 seconds behind Hamilton – while teammate Sebastian Vettel was 10th after having skipped the morning session to save his engine. He has only two – including his current one – for the final six races.
“We’ve been nursing the engines a long time now,” said Webber, who has three spare engines. “Both of us got through them today without any problems.”
Vettel is trying to make up a 25-point gap on Brawn GP’s Jenson Button, who leads the overall standings with 72 points.
Teammate Rubens Barrichello – coming off his first victory for five years at Valencia, Spain – is second in the standings with 54 points followed by Webber on 51.5.
“We cannot get beaten by Brawn here. We have to beat them, both of us do,” Webber said. “We can’t lose points to them here.”
As expected, the Brawn GPs struggled on a track characterized by long straights, high speed corners and cool weather. Button was 17th and Barrichello 18th, both nearly one-second off the pace.
Red Bull is also trying to trim a 27.5 point constructors’ series deficit to Brawn GP.
Luca Badoer’s role as Felipe Massa’s replacement at Ferrari could be threatened after the 38-year-old Italian driver finished last of the 20 drivers – 2 seconds off of Hamilton’s pace and nearly as much off of Raikkonen, a three-time winner here.
“It’s simply a question of finding my rhythm,” Badoer said. “Every run I am improving.”
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MotoGP racers in Indy aim to give fans better show
August 28, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Motorcycle racers are hoping clear weather will giveIndianapolis fans a better look at their sport.
The forecast for Sunday’s Indianapolis GP race includes cool temperaturesand no rain.
A year ago, the event was stopped early because of heavy rain and gustywinds that sent debris onto the street course and blew down tents in theinfield.
Defending champion Valentino Rossi and others acknowledged they had to playit safe last year and hope to give the fans a better show this time around.
Skies were overcast before Friday’s practice.
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HOF nominee wasn't that interested in being a driver (NASCAR.com)
August 28, 2009
Tom Wolfe called him "The Last American Hero." Federal authorities put him behind bars for 11 months for running moonshine from his rural western North Carolina roots. Fellow drivers knew of his tremendous will to win, which resulted in 50 Cup victories, including the 1960 Daytona 500, a race in which he pioneered the art of superspeedway drafting. As a car owner for Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip, he was responsible for six NASCAR championships. Junior Johnson—bootlegger, racer, owner, businessman—is as amazing a character as there is in NASCAR's storied history. Starting in his early teens, Junior retired from the cockpit by the time he was 35.
Q: How did you get your start in racing?
Johnson: When I was a young boy, 15 years old, they had a bootlegger's race at North Wilkesboro. The reason they had that, the cars they were running—they were called Grand Nationals at the time—they would come and qualify at 1 o'clock and start the race at 4, so they had two hours in there to find some entertainment for the fans. The fans would get restless in the grandstands and they were trying to figure out something to entertain them up to the time the race started.
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Enoch Staley was the promoter of the race track and his whole family was in the bootlegging business, just sort of like my family was. His brother, Gwyn, was in it, like my brother was. They had all these moonshiners with these fast cars and they'd bring them in and let the moonshiners drive them, and they'd have a match race between all of them. Well, my brother was a moonshiner, hauled whiskey and made whiskey and all that stuff. I was used to driving real fast on all of the dirt roads around there. So he wanted to run his car in that race, and I lived about two miles from the race track. And I was planting corn for my dad down in the fields and he came and wanted me to drive his car in the race up there.
I told him, "Give me a chance to get my shoes and I'll go with you." So I went up to the house and got my shoes, and we went off to the track at North Wilkesboro. Of course, we didn't have seatbelts or nothing like that then. They tied us in the seat with a rope. They put us all out there and started us up. None of us really knew what racing was all about. We were just racing with each other. Gwyn Staley was leading the race and I was trying to pass him, got an opportunity to get underneath on him, and there was a slower car down there. He pulled down and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him, and he won the race and I ran second.
That's how I was introduced to the racing, to start with. And I just kept messing with it more as time went on, driving and running where I could as I got a little older.
Q: Tom Wolfe wrote a famous magazine article about you, calling you "The Last American Hero." Did you find that to be a help or hindrance to your career?
Johnson: A lot of people have their opinions. I don't think you can say a race driver could be classified as a hero. To me, a hero is somebody who saves somebody's life or things of that nature. I was a fearless type. I was just a kid that did not fear anything.
Q: You retired as a driver at the peak of your career. Why did you decide to get out?
Johnson: Well, I drove a race car a little different that everybody else. It was fun for me, and I did it to see if I could beat what they called the best at the track at that time, like Curtis Turner, Buck Baker, Buddy Shuman and those kind of guys. I knew they were good drivers because they were winning races, but I didn't think they were as good a drivers as me and some other people, because we were on highways. We'd go one way or the other. One curve would be to the left, the other to the right. And we had all kind of curves we'd go into that we could handle, rather than just going round and round one race track with two curves in it.
I didn't think they were as good as I was. It was a challenge to see if I could beat them at their own game, is how I got into it to start with. It wasn't like I was gung-ho to be a race driver, because I was hauling whiskey. I didn't have that kind of desire to prove that I could outrun everybody on the race track. I wanted to see if I could.
Q: As a car owner, you had a tremendous roster of talent driving for you. Who stands out from that list?
Johnson: I tried to pick a driver who was somebody who had the nerve and the talent to try and beat anybody who came up against him. And I picked that kind of person 99 percent of the time. Basically, that's why I picked Cale Yarborough. I picked LeeRoy Yarbrough for the same thing. Bobby Allison had the same mentality. He just couldn't stand to be beat. And so was Darrell Waltrip. Charlie Glotzbach. All the guys I had just didn't settle for second place.
Q: What is the biggest change to the sport?
Johnson: I think the car is the biggest change I've seen. The sport has gotten more like baseball or football, as far as the rules are concerned. The cars, there's no real desire to invent something, because if they do, they'll get caught. If they're caught cheating, they're fined and suspended.
That doesn't make a real attractive sport for mechanics and that kind of people. For drivers, it doesn't make that much difference. If they win, they don't care if the car runs good. They don't have any interest in building something new or making something better or anything like that, and that's the part I don't like about it.
Q: If you were to hire one of today's drivers, who would it be?
Johnson: Kyle Busch. I'm not saying that because he's controversial. He's a great race driver. It's just he likes to rub it in on people and they don't like it. I'm not saying he's the best driver out there, but I think he has the most desire. And he fits on my list better than anybody else.
Q: If you could choose the first five members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, who would you select?
Johnson: The fifth guy's the only person I couldn't choose. I'd choose Bill France first, Bill France Jr. second, Richard Petty third and Dale Earnhardt fourth.
Q: What do you feel will be your legacy in stock-car racing?
Johnson: I gave the sport a lot more than I received from it. I can say that. I see stuff on the cars and stuff that they do today, every bit of it came from stuff we did and I did in my racing operation. It feels good to see people that haven't advanced beyond a lot of things I had on my cars when I quit.
Also: • • •
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Crafton believes he still has shot at Truck Series title (NASCAR.com)
August 28, 2009
Matt Crafton knows what it will take to close the big points gap in the Camping World Truck Series championship to Ron Hornaday, who leads him by 211 points with 10 races remaining.
"Realistically, I've got to win and he's got to have a bad race and that would make up [more than] 100 points," Crafton said leading up to Friday's inaugural EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. "Hornaday has done a great job and the team [Kevin Harvick Inc.] has gone a great job and it took five races for us to lose those points and five races for them to gain them. It's not over by any means."
Crafton led Hornaday by 39 points going into Milwaukee. Hornaday then began a truck-record five-race winning streak, tying Richard Petty and Bobby Allison for the second longest string in a NASCAR national series. It ended at Bristol last week with Kyle Busch winning. Crafton sliced five points off the deficit by finishing second to Hornaday's third.
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"We had two bad races during Hornaday's streak," Crafton said. "He came to me joking at Michigan and had the voodoo doll on me and here comes the next race at Milwaukee and I have brake trouble."
Crafton finished 16th at both Milwaukee and O'Reilly Raceway Park during Hornaday's winning streak, losing a combined 155 points. He has only one other finish outside the top 10 this year, 11th at Atlanta. Crafton has seven top-fives, two less than his career-best nine of last year, and 12 top-10s, equaling the second-highest total in his nine full seasons in the series.
"The top-fives and the top-10s are great, but we're capable of winning," Crafton said. "We've been in position a couple of times and still don't have a win and, my God, we should have. It's aggravating. Some if it has been the stupid pit rules. They've benefited the Toyotas more than the Chevrolets because the Toyotas get better fuel mileage. Mark Smith, our engine builder, builds awesome horsepower, but we don't get the mileage that the Toyotas do and it's cost us in several races."
NASCAR instituted rules this year in the Truck Series that don't allow teams to change tires and add fuel on the same stop.
Crafton has spent eight of his nine seasons with ThorSport Racing and has a long-term contract with the organization. He won at Charlotte and was fifth in points last season, his best with the team. Crafton also was fifth in the points in 2004, when he drove for Kevin Harvick Inc. Crafton has made 212 consecutive starts in the series, third on the all-time list behind Terry Cook's 287 and Dennis Setzer's 266.
Crafton and ThorSport are on a pace for their best season together in 2009.
"I've been very happy with what we've done without a doubt," Crafton said. "What's been really cool for the team owners, Duke and Rhonda Thorson, is they've proven you can be competitive from Ohio."
ThorSport is based in Sandusky, Ohio. The vast majority of truck teams are in the NASCAR stronghold in and surrounding Charlotte, N.C.
"A few years ago, I didn't think it was impossible, but that it's definitely tougher to be in Ohio," Crafton said. "It's still tough, but there's good and bad. The good about being in Ohio is you don't have people jumping from team to team. The bad is if you lose somebody of high value, it's a little harder to replace them."
EnjoyIllinois.com 225 Practice 3 Speeds Pos.DriverMakeSpeedTime 1.Chad McCumbeeChevy171.76131.4392.Rick CrawfordFord171.70131.4503.Johnny SauterChevy171.54331.4794.Colin BraunFord171.33631.5175.Mike SkinnerToyota171.33131.5186.Ron HornadayChevy171.18431.5457.Todd BodineToyota170.70231.6348.Kyle BuschToyota170.69231.6369.David StarrToyota170.55731.66110.Matt CraftonChevy170.13231.740 Camping World Truck Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Ron Hornaday2,458Leader2.—Matt Crafton2,247-2113.—Mike Skinner2,153-3054.+1Brian Scott2,075-3835.+1David Starr2,013-4456.-2Todd Bodine1,994-4647.+2Colin Braun1,931-5278.—Dennis Setzer1,915-5439.-2Tayler Malsam1,901-55710.—Rick Crawford1,891-567
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Daytona 500 qualifying avoids Super Bowl conflict
August 28, 2009
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP)—Qualifying for next season’s Daytona 500 will be held one day earlier than usual, a move that avoids running the session on the same day as the Super Bowl.
The top two spots for NASCAR’s biggest race of the year are typically determined in qualifying on the first Sunday of “Speedweeks.” But the NFL moved the Super Bowl back one week in 2010.
Although NASCAR’s qualifying would have ended before kickoff, the move avoids any conflicts with the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 in Miami.
Qualifying will be part of a Saturday tripleheader at Daytona on Feb. 6 that includes the exhibition Budweiser Shootout and the season-opening ARCA race.
Daytona International Speedway president Robin Braig said the move provides “even more value to our race fans, who can now enjoy a unique racing tripleheader as well as all the festivities surrounding the Super Bowl the following day.”
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Montreal has seen its share of action in two seasons (NASCAR.com)
August 28, 2009
The Nationwide Series races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the third time Sunday in the Napa Auto Parts 200, and if the previous two events are characteristic of what can happen on the 2.709-mile road course in Montreal, it should be an eventful and entertaining adventure.
Ron Fellows won last year's race with help from Mother Nature. Rain flooded the track and forced the race to be shortened from 74 laps to 48. Fellows, running in the top five, was on an alternate pit-stop strategy from leader Marcos Ambrose and several other cars and inherited the lead. Five laps later, rain returned for the second time and after two caution laps, NASCAR threw the checkered flag. Fellows became the first winner of a race that used rain tires and the first Canadian to win in Canada.
"It was a wild, wild day with certainly the threat of rain, getting an opportunity to actually race the Nationwide cars in the rain," Fellows said. "Certainly, it was a special win for me being Canadian."
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There wasn't any rain for the inaugural race in 2007. It featured a wacky and climatic conclusion with some good, old-fashioned NASCAR fender-banging.
Ambrose and Robby Gordon were in a ferocious battle for the lead in the closing laps. Gordon nudged ahead to move in front of Ambrose and Ambrose tapped Gordon to regain the lead. The caution, for a multicar incident, came out at the same time Ambrose was re-passing Gordon.
NASCAR ordered Gordon to drop back to 13th place, but he stayed directly behind Ambrose. On the restart with two laps to go, Gordon hit Ambrose and spun the Australian and stayed in front the rest of the way. But it was Kevin Harvick who took the checkered flag. NASCAR had quit counting Gordon's lap for the last restart.
Harvick and Gordon both did burnouts on the front straight, but the win belonged to Harvick.
"In my opinion, I won the race," Gordon said. "I was spun out during the yellow, but I completed all laps, yet NASCAR took it from me."
Ambrose had dominated both races, leading 37 of 75 laps in 2007 and 27 of 48 in 2008, but had only seventh- and third-place finishes, respectively, to show for it.
Think Ambrose might be a little hungry Sunday? He's won the Nationwide race the past two years at Watkins Glen (the series' other road course), and returns in the JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota.
"To be honest, I think the man to beat is going to be Mr. Ambrose," Fellows said.
Fellows should be formidable, too. He'll be attempting to win two consecutive at Montreal in JR Motorsports' Chevrolet. Fellows is one of the most successful so-called road-race ringers in NASCAR history with four victories in the Nationwide and two in the Truck Series. In 14 Nationwide starts, all on road courses, he has seven top-fives.
"We know we've got to be better than we were last year in the dry based on what we saw at Watkins Glen with the strength of the Toyotas and Carl Edwards in the Ford," Fellows said. "We have our work cut out for us."
Kyle Busch will be driving in his first race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but he has a Nationwide victory at Mexico City last season and finished second to Ambrose three weeks ago at Watkins Glen.
There's also a strong contingent of Canadian road racers in the field, including 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier has finished second each of the past two years.
Three to watch
Boris Said, No. 09: Said is an experienced road-race wheelman, and he never can be counted out on these types of tracks. He finished 11th in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, and isn't afraid of muscling cars out of the way.
Marcos Ambrose, No. 47: Ambrose outfoxed Kyle Busch for that Nationwide win at the Glen. His confidence in NASCAR racing continues to grow, and that will continue to be very apparent Sunday.
Jacques Villeneuve, No. 32: This Montreal track is named after Villeneuve's dad, but we're not issuing this shout-out for nepotistic reasons. Jacques is a former Formula One champ and is in a pretty solid ride this weekend with Braun Racing, which has four career Nationwide wins.
Track chatter
Brendan Gaughan: "I really like road racing. I did a lot of it earlier in my career. I've never raced at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but I'm really looking forward to it. This track is one of the more well known from an international perspective, and it's cool to think about all the drivers that have raced there in the past. I'm going to run the Grand Am race [Saturday], just trying to get all the laps I can in preparation for [Sunday]."
Patrick Carpentier: "It's always fun. We seem to run well there, so hopefully we do the same thing this year. We tested with Jerry Baxter [crew chief] and the team, so we think we're ready. We're looking forward to it and there's going to be a few Cup guys coming over early because they don't have a race that weekend so that should be fun. It's been raining there every day for the last month, so hopefully we get a little bit of a break and it gets cleared up."
Nationwide Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Kyle Busch3,900— 2.—Carl Edwards3,652-2483.—Brad Keselowski3,597-3034.—Jason Leffler3,353-5475.—Justin Allgaier2,843-1,0576.—Steve Wallace2,785-1,1157.—Jason Keller2,727-1,1738.—Mike Bliss2,713-1,1879.—Brendan Gaughan2,649-1,25110.—Michael McDowell2,608-1,292
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F1′s Abu Dhabi GP to start in light, end in dark (PA SportsTicker)
August 28, 2009
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM(AP) —The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be the first Formula One race to start in daylight and end at night.
Organizers announced Friday that the Nov. 1 race will start in the late afternoon.
Singapore hosted F1’s first nighttime race last season.
Abu Dhabi is the second Middle East location to host an F1 race after Bahrain. It will host the race through 2015.
Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management chief executive Richard Cregan says the “Yas Marina Circuit has been built from the outset to host day and nighttime activities.”
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Drive for five under way; Chicago next opportunity (NASCAR.com)
August 27, 2009
Judging the headline, fans may presume this is a Sprint Cup Series story about Jeff Gordon's quest for a fifth series championship.
However, the focus is on Kyle Busch, who is looking to chalk up a victory on Friday night at Chicago. If he wins, it would mark the fifth track at which Rowdy has won a Cup, Nationwide and Truck series race. He already has victories in the three national touring series at Bristol, Dover, Fontana and Phoenix.
"The biggest thing I learned last year was the track didn't change much," said Busch, who swept the Nationwide and Cup series races in 2008. "It just got cooler and gained grip. The balance didn't change a lot—that was pretty cool to see."
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Last week at Bristol, Busch ended Ron Hornaday's five-race winning streak. Busch now leads Hornaday by .29 percent in career winning percentage (.1904 to .1875) with 12 wins in 63 Truck Series starts; Hornaday has 45 victories in 240 races.
"Overall, winning five in a row … it has been a lot of fun," Hornaday said. "We will just start all over again."
Busch's victory at Bristol marked the sixth consecutive season in which crew chief Richie Wauters has at least one victory, equaling the series record shared by Dennis Connor (1996-2001) and Mike Hillman Jr. (2004-09).
1Point, the separation between Tayler Malsam (156) and Johnny Sauter (155) in the Truck Series' rookie of the year standings.2Points, the separation between Toyota (111) and Chevrolet (109) in the Truck Series' manufacturers championship standings.3Drivers have competed in all 13 Truck Series races held in Illinois: Terry Cook, Rick Crawford and Dennis Setzer. Cook has the only victory, at Gateway in 2002.4National touring series wins at Chicago for Kevin Harvick, tops among all drivers. He has two victories in both the Cup (2001, '02) and Nationwide (2005, '07) series.5Brian Scott's average finish in the past six races, since a season-worst 34th-place finish on June 13 at Michigan.6Series-leading consecutive years in which Todd Bodine has won a Truck Series races. Kyle Busch, Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner have active five-year streaks.7Drivers who have won a Truck Series race this year, led by Ron Hornaday's six, after 15 of 25 races. The most winners win a season: 14 (27 races in 1998 and 25 races in 2005). The fewest winners in a season: 7 (20 races in 1995 and 24 races in '96).8Major Loop Data categories led by Ron Hornaday in addition to his 125.5 Driver Rating, among drivers who have raced in 75 percent of scheduled point-paying races: 1) Laps Led—748 … 2) Laps In Top 15—2,193 … 3) Average Running Position—5.444 (position on each lap, divided by the laps run in the race) … 4) Fastest Early In a Run—2.444 (during the first 25 percent of laps run since a pit stop) … 5) Fastest Late In a Run—3.429 (during the last 25 percent of laps run since a pit stop) … 6) Fastest Laps Run—379 (driver had the fastest speed on the lap) … 7) Fastest on Restarts—5.467 (speed of first two laps under green conditions) … 
Green Flag Speed—2.444 (green-flag lap speed throughout the race).9Times that Ron Hornaday has won the inaugural Truck Series race at a track. Mike Skinner (6), Mike Bliss (3), Butch Miller (1) and Ken Schrader (1) also have won the first series race at a track.10Um, make it a not-so-perfect 10: Ricky Carmichael is featured in X-Games 3D: The Movie. (Download the trailer at: www.xgames3dmovie.com.) "I competed in the X-Games the weekend of Nashville; it was fun," Carmichael said. "I received a co-gold medal in the step-up competition, but I also took a pretty wicked fall."
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Racing north of the border offers plenty of surprises (NASCAR.com)
August 27, 2009
The Nationwide Series goes to Montreal for the third time and if the first two races are any indication, just about anything is possible. A quick review:
The road aces have been especially good at , a 2.71-mile, 15-turn racing obstacle.
3Burnouts by drivers in the first race: Kevin Harvick, who won; Robby Gordon, who thought he had won; and Patrick Carpentier, thrilled with a runner-up finish in his native Canada.9Combined laps led by the first two race winners: Kevin Harvick led for two laps in 2007, fewest of any driver who led in the race; Ron Fellows led for seven laps in '08, the third and final lead change.29Laps run under green in wet conditions in last year's race. The race was red-flagged on Lap 8, rain tires put on the cars and sent back out to the track. On Lap 13, the race went green. There were only three subequent cautions, the final one calling the race after 48 of the scheduled 74 laps.2Drivers who have posted top-five finishes in both races: Ron Fellows and Patrick Carpentier. Fellows finished fourth in 2007 before winning last year; Carpentier has finished second in both races.2Races in which Marcos Ambrose led the most laps. Ambrose led 37 laps in 2007 but finished seventh after his late-race mishap with Robby Gordon led to the controversial ending; Ambrose led 27 laps in '08 but finished third after a pit-road speeding penalty. He joins Ron Fellows and Patrick Carpentier as the only drivers with top-10s in both races.8Drivers who have led at Montreal; seven have extensive road experience: Marcos Ambrose (64), Scott Pruett (22), Patrick Carpentier (14), Ron Fellows (11), Niclas Jonsson (5), Boris Said (4) and Jacques Villeneuve (1).
Coverage of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 ( | Tickets) begins at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2.
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3Place of finish for Max Papis in 2007, when he drove the No. 1 Chevrolet of James Finch (the same car he is entered in this week). Papis finished 20th in last year's race. He has started second in both races.6Place of finish for Carl Edwards in last year's race. He finished 30th in 2007, 10 laps off the lead.7Drivers entered in this week's race with just one top-10 finish at Montreal: Brad Coleman, Carl Edwards, Jason Leffler, Stephen Leicht, Max Papis, Boris Said and Steve Wallace. Leicht is the only one of the group to have made just one start.7Drivers not entered in this week's race with a top-10 at Montreal: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday, Kyle Krisiloff and David Reutimann.9Native Canadians on the Entry List: Patrick Carpentier, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Ron Fellows, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Darryl Harr, D.J. Kennington, Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani and Jacques Villeneuve. Dumoulin and Tagliani are debuting in a Nationwide car.16Place of finish for Jacques Villeneuve in last year's race. Villeneuve started fifth on the track named after his father and was running sixth before a crash that preceded NASCAR calling the race.
THE BUSCH WATCH
Kyle Busch led one lap last week at Bristol, extending his series record of consecutive races with a lead to 21. He has led in every race but one this season.
0Starts at Montreal for Kyle Busch.
THE WOW FACTOR
50.149Average speed, in mph, during last year's race in the rain. The winning pole speed, set by Scott Pruett, was 95.082 mph.
THE SUPER LOOPER
52.0Percentage of Laps Led by Marcos Ambrose. The next closest driver is Patrick Carpentier at 11.4.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
65Age of legendary Hollywood stuntman Stan Barrett when he made his first Nationwide start last year at Montreal. He finished 39th with a DNF (brakes) after seven laps. Barrett's son, Stanton, finished 25th, marking the first time since 2002 that a father and son competed in the same Nationwide race. Stan Barrett, who hadn't made a NASCAR start since the last of his 19 career Cup races in 1990, finished 33rd a week later at Watkins Glen.
Note: Stan Barrett was the first person to exceed the speed of sound in a land vehicle (739.666 mph in 1979).—Sporting News Wire Service
Nationwide Series Standings Pos.+/-DriverPointsBehind 1.—Kyle Busch3,900— 2.—Carl Edwards3,652-2483.—Brad Keselowski3,597-3034.—Jason Leffler3,353-5475.—Justin Allgaier2,843-1,0576.—Steve Wallace2,785-1,1157.—Jason Keller2,727-1,1738.—Mike Bliss2,713-1,1879.—Brendan Gaughan2,649-1,25110.—Michael McDowell2,608-1,292
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