Mammoth Blog

Ron Fellows had high hopes of defending his history-making NASCAR win a year ago at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He left in despair.

The Canadian road racing star, who won the first NASCAR points race run in the rain a year ago on the tricky 14-turn street circuit, qualified third for Sunday's Nationwide race and brought the Canadian crowd to its feet with a classic pass of eventual race-winner Carl Edwards in the hairpin turn on the first lap.

Fellows smoked the brakes on his No. 5 Chevy in making the smooth pass and set out to challenge Marcos Ambrose for the lead. But Fellows had to pit on lap five to fix damage to his front-end valence that happened during that hard braking, and his day ended prematurely when he was involved in a three-car crash on lap 26 caused by rookie Justin Allgaier.

Allgaier sideswiped Fellows, then slammed Kyle Busch's right rear.

"I got down in and just got on the brakes and wheel-hopped,'' Allgaier said. "I tried to save it. This is a tough place, for sure. Probably just trying too hard.''

Fellows and Allgaier sustained too much damage to continue, but Busch spun completely around, kept going, and finished 10th.

"The car is an absolute wreck,'' Fellows said. "I got hit so hard I banged my head pretty good. It's just crazy. This road race is my Daytona 500 and here I sit, watching.''

On the bright side for Canada, three Quebec-born drivers finished in the top seven. NASCAR Canadian Tire Series leader Andrew Ranger was third, followed by Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula One champ, and Jean Francois Dumoulin was seventh.

That they managed to survive a crash-filled race that featured 11 cautions for 31 of 76 laps was a triumph in itself.

"It's the wildest one (I've ever been in),'' Villeneuve said. "If you did that in F1, you wouldn't survive five minutes. This was wild, definitely crazy. It's a good thing these cars are strong.''

Montreal-born Patrick Carpentier might have been in the mix, too. He started 40th and was running in the top five on lap 17 when he blew a tire and then his motor.

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P.R. MAN: Road racing veteran Victor Gonzalez Jr. made history on Sunday, becoming the first driver from Puerto Rico to compete in the Nationwide Series.

Regarded as a road course ace, the Trujillo Alto native has over 30 career wins and is aiming to race a full Nationwide schedule in 2010.

"It's something new. We're working to do a full deal,'' said Gonzalez, who has dedicated most of his professional career representing Puerto Rico internationally, competing in the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship, Barber Dodge Pro Series, and North American Touring Car Series. "I'm just here to get as many laps as I can in the series. I have really good expectations. Hopefully, I can stay out of trouble.''

He did until the closing laps, when he made contact with Steven Wallace to bring out the 11th and final caution.

Still, Gonzalez finished 14th after starting 36th in the GDSI/Ford Racing Fusion.

"I thought it was like a wrestling match,'' said Gonzalez, who had to qualify in the rain to make the race. "I never in my life saw so many crashes. But we survived. We could have been top 10.''

Gonzalez also has driven GTS and Grand-Am GT cars as well as late model stock cars, and he's the only instructor at Skip Barber Racing School to hail from the U.S. territory. source>>>