Carl Edwards won Sunday’s Nationwide NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Montreal when Marcos Ambrose overshot the final corner on the last lap. UPI
Ambrose put on a dominating performance by leading 60 of 76 laps, but the Aussie slid in turn 14, while Edwards made the pass and then claimed his third Nationwide victory of the season and his first on a road course.
Ambrose has led the most laps in the first three races at Montreal, but victory has eluded him here. He lost last year’s event after being slapped with a late-race penalty for speeding on pit road. Ron Fellows went on to win the rain-shortened race. In 2007, Robby Gordon spun Ambrose out of the lead on the final lap, with Kevin Harvick taking the victory. MiamiHerald.com
“I can’t believe I caught him and I can’t believe we won the race,” said Edwards, now 192 points behind Busch, who finished 10th. “I guess that shows you can never give up.”
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-Francois Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., was seventh.
The marathon race lasted nearly four hours, with 11 cautions and 31 laps run behind the pace car. Most of it was run on a dry track, but heavy rain fell briefly on the 56th of 76 laps, forcing a nearly seven minute delay to install rain tires, wipers and tail lights.
And the final laps had cars flying in all directions in one of the wildest days of Edwards’ career.
NASCAR Nationwide Series: NAPA Auto Parts 200 - Race Results
“It was the most dynamic race I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “There was more happening in that race than any I’ve ever been a part of. I was never bored.” The Canadian Press
“I just made a mistake at the end there and lost the race,” Ambrose said. “Any other lap, any other corner, I would have got it straight back. It just happened to be the last corner of the race. We had a drag race coming off the hairpin. Carl got position on me, and I had to try to make sure I [outbraked] him.
“I feel pretty devastated, because I let my boys down. We came here to win, and anything less than that was a disappointment.”
Ambrose was in the lead and in control when NASCAR called the eighth caution of the afternoon after a shower hit the race track as the cars were working Lap 59. Two laps later, NASCAR ordered the cars to pit road and red-flagged the race while crews mounted rain tires and installed wipers and lights.
After refiring the engines, the field took the green flag double-file on Lap 64, with Ambrose in the lead and Ranger beside him on the front row. Ambrose held the top spot through three more cautions before Edwards, who led three times for three laps, made his move in the final corner. NASCAR
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