Sunday, August 3, 2008

Ragan 13th in Nationwide race on rain tires at Montreal

MONTREAL -- They were singing, and driving, in the rain Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. NASCAR's grand experiment with road racing on rain tires was considered an unqualified success by most in attendance, unless you happened to be rooting for Gilles' son, Jacques. "I think we saw that we really have some people that have talent, on rain tires and running in the rain," Nationwide Series director Joe Balash said. "We've seen a lot of drivers ... that have never had this experience before, and now they can say they ran in the first Nationwide race in the rain and gained a lot of valuable experience that they can relate to other forms of racing." Early afternoon sunshine morphed into threatening, gray-tinged clouds as the start time for the NAPA Auto Parts 200 drew nearer, and a lightning bolt in the distance punctuated the command for drivers to start their engines. And it wasn't long before the raindrops came down, first in the hairpin at the north end of the 2.709-mile track, then inundating the entire course by Lap 7. One lap later, Balash made the decision: Bring all of the cars onto pit road under red-flag conditions and bolt on rain tires, windshield wipers, blowers and brake lights. Eight minutes later, the field resumed position behind the pace vehicle -- and on Lap 13, for the first time, a points-paying NASCAR race took the green flag on a wet track. And the expected carnage? Never happened. Instead, the 30-plus cars made it through Turn 1 unscathed. Then Turns 2, 3 and all the way back around, lap after lap. In fact, it was a road-course ringer with wet-track experience -- Max Papis -- who lost traction and slammed into the Turn 3 barrier to bring out the next caution on Lap 31. Goodyear, maligned six days ago at Indianapolis, reigned in the rain on Saturday, as the Eagle rain tires performed flawlessly up until the track completely lost all traction. Perhaps "Tread On Me" should be the company's new racing slogan. After a tentative couple of laps, there was side-by-side racing. Guys who turn left for a living not only figured out how to turn right, but they did it under conditions that normally require a "slow wake zone" sign. It wasn't until standing water overwhelmed sections of the racing surface that NASCAR officials had to stop the race again, this time for good less than 30 laps from the scheduled distance. And how about the "par excellence" fans in Montreal -- prepared with umbrellas, ponchos and garbage bags -- who weathered the wet with amazing patience until the race was finally called? Joie de vivre, indeed!

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