Race 16 - Canadian Tire Challenge

Bobby Ricky looks at...The Canadian Tire Challenge:

So...here we are, in Montreal, ready for the Cup debut at the house built by the Villeneuve family. What to expect in Round 16 in our season?

Well, to put this as bluntly as possible, I expect typical road course racing. Seeing that this is the first Cup race at this track, I honestly don't know what to expect. That said, expect road course pros like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart to dominate most of the day, ringers like Ron Fellows, Boris Said, and of course Jacques Villeneuve, to try and spoil the party like they've been doing so long, and maybe events akin to what took place at Sonoma back in March. I'm not saying that the race will end under caution like Sonoma, but with unexpectations ahead, it seems likely.

I know I'm not saying much here, but again, this is the first Nextel Cup race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, so nobody knows what to expect. We may just have a first-time winner here, and not necessarily a road-course ringer.

A couple notes here. One, I'm doing a lap-by-lap summary instead of a article-style summary because a lot of stuff happens at road course races that doesn't necessarily bring out a caution of impact the race but it's still nice to know what happened. But, if you guys say that you like the lap-by-lap format better, I'll go back to it. It's up to you, so give me some feedback.

Also, the yellow points standings indicate that we are now at 10 races before the Chase, so the "Race to the Chase" has officially begun. The yellow drivers are still mathematically eligible to make the Chase. Once drivers clinch spots, they will turn green.

So, here we go.

Race 16 - Canadian Tire Challenge
Good afternoon race fans: We're here at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the inaugural Canadian Tire Challenge, the first-ever NASCAR-sanctioned race here in Montreal, Canada. It's going to be an exciting day, and we already saw some excitement in qualifying. German Quiroga Jr., this week's injury fill-in for Kurt Busch, stunned the NASCAR community by taking the pole for his first ever Cup Series start. It was quite an impressive showing by the road course ringer, although not too many other road course ringers fared well on Friday. Several even failed to qualify. In addition to full-time guys like Paul Menard, Kyle Petty, Denny Hamlin, and Kenny Wallace, we saw ringers of Alex Tagliani, Boris Said, Scott Pruett, and Patrick Carpentier all fail to make the race. The 8 DNQs is the highest we've had for a while this season and goes to show how anticipated this race is. We're just about to get going here, so grab some chips and a soda and enjoy.

Lap 1 - German Quiroga Jr. leads the field to the green flag in his first career start alongside Kyle Busch.

Lap 1 - Trouble already. Turn 5, which looks like the problem spot after two practice sessions, gobbled up Robby Gordon, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Elliott Sadler, and Kasey Kahne. Gordon and Fitzpatrick brought their mangled racecars to an access road and are on wreckers back to the garage, done for the day. Because they got off track quickly, we're staying green.

Lap 2 - Kyle Busch has jumped out to the lead and didn't Quiroga lead a lap. Casey Mears has passed by the 33 as well. Kahne is bringing his car to pit road with fender damage from the turn 5 incident.

Lap 3 - Jacques Villeneuve, the son of this track's namesake, and A.J. Allmendinger have both slapped the wall exiting 5.

Lap 4 - Sadler hits pit road to repair his Ford.

Lap 5 - Allmendinger on pit road.

Lap 6 - Villeneuve the next onto pit road. Another ringer, Ron Fellows, has kissed the wall exiting 5.

Lap 7 - Greg Biffle is really slow on track right now. He's really holding up a large portion of the pack and is just not getting up to speed quickly at all. Kahne has gone a lap down.

Lap 9 - Biffle hits pit road and the crew's got the hood up. He'll lose a lap, but it doesn't look like he's done for the day just yet.

Lap 10 - Ryan Newman, running 7th, stuffed it into the Wall of Champions last time by.

Lap 11 - Tony Stewart goes way too hot into turns 9 and 10 and skids through the grass and into the turn 10 tire barrier. He'll continue on, but at a slower pace.

Lap 12 - Stewart hits pit road. Johnny Sauter and Bobby Hamilton Jr. now have grazed the turn 5 wall.

Lap 13 - Terry Labonte into the turn 5 wall. That place is really eating up a lot of the cars near the back of the pack that are struggling with poor handling.

Lap 14 - Newman on pit road as Joe Nemechek puts his #01 Chevy in the Wall of Champions. A lot of problems in the early going, but the drivers will likely figure this place out before too long.

Lap 15 - Nemechek stops to repair damage, and he'll lose a lap.

Lap 19 - Dave Blaney on pit road. It's a little early for scheduled pit stops, but he may intentionally be trying to jump the gun and gain track position.

Lap 20 - Stewart loses a lap.

Lap 21 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. on pit road, it looks like a scheduled stop as there's no damage on the #8 machine.

Lap 24 - Sadler loses a lap, and now Mears and Quiroga are on pit road for their first stops of the day.

Lap 25 - HUGE group of drivers making stops now. Jeff Gordon takes over the race lead from Busch who is followed onto pit road by Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Travis Kvapil, Brian Vickers, Jeremy Mayfield, Jon Wood, Bobby Labonte, Sauter, Matt Kenseth, Mike Bliss, J.J. Yeley, Juan Montoya, Terry Labonte, Todd Kluever, Hamilton Jr., Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs, Reed Sorenson, and Michael Waltrip.

Lap 26 - Looks like most of the rest of the pack is pitting this time. Gordon leads a charge and is followed by Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Sadler, Biffle, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Fellows, Aric Almirola, Jason Leffler, and Kahne.

Lap 27 - Kyle Busch has cycled back to the lead.

Lap 28 - Allmendinger back to pit road, he's a couple laps off cycle.

Lap 30 - Ditto for Villeneuve.

Lap 36 - Stewart on pit road, he's off cycle as well.

Lap 37 - Sauter's struggles continue, as he puts his #78 into the Wall of Champions. Several drivers have been into a wall, but he's the only one to tag to different walls.

Lap 38 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets the turn 5 wall and pits, and Newman and Sauter pit with him. Newman's stop is scheduled, the others are to repair tire rubs.

Lap 39 - Nemechek to pit road for a planned stop.

Lap 43 - Blaney to the pits.

Lap 48 - Next full cycle of stops commencing with Quiroga and Terry Labonte. The 33 team is trying to keep Quiroga comfortable by pitting him a lap before most others, and hoping at the same time the race doesn't come down to fuel mileage as they'll be short..

Lap 49 - Gordon retakes the lead as Busch, Bowyer, Mears, Harvick, Burton, Vickers, Kvapil, Mayfield, Bobby Labonte, Wood, Bliss, Yeley, Kenseth, Kluever, Montoya, Hamilton Jr., McMurray, Waltrip, Riggs, and Sorenson make stops.

Lap 50 - Gordon, Johnson, Edwards, Truex Jr., Fellows, Almirola, Leffler, Sadler, Biffle and Kahne make their stops.

Lap 51 - Kyle back in front, and Fellows apparently lost an engine on pit road and will finish 40th.

Lap 51 - YELLOW FLAG #1 - Travis Kvapil into the pit entrance hard. It looks like he lost his brakes as he started to turn into the last corner and tried to get it back onto pit road but misjudged it. His car is totaled, and he'll take a 39th place finish. Not what he needed sitting outside of the top 12. However, this is huge for a lot of the drivers who were off cycle. Most of them hadn't made their next pit stops yet and will be back on the lead lap and on a regular pit cycle again.

Lap 54 - Green flag back out. Busch leads Gordon and Johnson in an all-Hendrick top 3.

Lap 55 - Villeneuve is the only Hendrick car not having a good day. He's gotten back into the turn 5 wall again.

Lap 57 - Sadler's struggles continue, as he gets dumped by Waltrip entering turn 5. Terry Labonte and Allmendinger get minor damage, but Sadler is furious on the radio.

Lap 58 - Texas Terry brings it to pit road to repair the right front fender.

Lap 60 - Terry's brother Bobby gets into the turn 5 wall.

Lap 61 - Gordon out of NOWHERE to pass Busch for the lead in turn 7. Nobody has had anything for Kyle on a long run, but has he used his stuff up? Gordon is far and away the fastest car on track now.

Lap 61 - Smoke onto pit road, it's not clear what's wrong with the 20 at the moment.

Lap 62 - Bobby Labonte stops to pull out the right front fender.

Lap 64 - Villenueve to pit road. It's been a trying afternoon for the driver who had such high hopes.

Lap 67 - Blaney hits pit road.

Lap 69 - Kyle Busch onto pit road. He had slipped back to 4th and was complaining about having no rear grip, so crew chief Alan Gustafson called him in get a new set of Goodyear tires on. He's got plenty of fuel to make it to the end of the race, so pitting a couple laps early should work in his favor so long as no cautions come out.

Lap 71 - Terry Labonte, Almirola and Newman to pit road.

Lap 72 - Once again Quiroga is the first of the leaders to pit, as Kluever follows him down for the final stop of the day. What an impressive performance by the polesitter, who, despite not leading a lap, has maintained a top 10 run the entire race.

Lap 73 - Here comes a big group down pit road. Gordon is followed by Bowyer, Mears, Burton, Vickers, Truex Jr., Bliss, Mayfield, Yeley, Kenseth, Nemechek, Montoya, Hamilton Jr., McMurray, Riggs, Waltrip, and Sadler. Also coming down pit road is Harvick, but he and Truex Jr. tried to come on side by side and Harvick clipped the same barrier that took out Kvapil. He'll continue on, but it's an extended stop for the 29 that will end his top 10 run and possibly drop him out of the top 12.

Lap 74 - Biffle, Johnson, Edwards, Leffler, Earnhardt Jr., and Kahne pit. Edwards leads a lap on pit road, becoming the first driver other than Gordon or Busch to cross the start-finish line first today. That's how dominant those two have been.

Lap 75 - Pit stops cycle through as MB2 teammates Nemechek and Sauter pit. Gordon is back in front. Allmendinger and Sorenson are the only ones to pit, and Sorenson has to. Allmendinger is reportedly trying to stretch it to the end and hold on to his 19th place run.

Lap 76 - Sorenson pits.

Lap 79 - Allmendinger gives it up 6 laps shy, choosing not to risk running out of fuel on the long road course.

Lap 81 - 5 to go for Gordon, he's got a 7+ second lead over Busch and 8+ seconds over Bowyer. Barring a caution or a catastrophe for the 24 team, they've got themselves their 2nd win of the year.

Lap 85 - White flag for Gordon. Busch can only sit and think about his possible first career win that got away. He dominated this race, leading 56 laps.

Checkered flag - Jeff Gordon wins the inaugural Canadian Tire Challenge at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, reminding everybody that he's still got it on the road courses, earning his 75th overall victory. His Hendrick teammate Kyle Busch dominated the race, leading 56 of 85 laps, but a bad set of tires late doomed him to a second place finish. Bowyer takes third, Mears takes 4th, and the other two full-time Hendrick teams come next as Johnson places ahead of Vickers in 5th. 4 cars in the top 6 for Hendrick Motorsports in an impressive showing.

Results:



Point Standings:



Owner Standings:

Bobby Ricky's Post-Race Analysis:

There you have it, folks. The inaugural Canadian Tire Challenge is in the books. This race had it all: Drama, un-expectations, and a familiar face in victory lane.

First of all, kudos to Hendrick Motorsports on a great day. All four drivers in the top 10, two of them lead for most of the day, and above all, Brain Vickers is still our points leader (Really, who else didn't see this coming?!). Also, this win puts Jeff Gordon one win away from tying the late great Dale Earnhardt. I look forward to the day where Gordon catches Earnhardt in the win column and ultimately overtakes him.

And what a debut for German Quiroga Jr! This guy was brought in by Richard Childress to take over Kurt Busch's car for this race while A.J. Allmendinger serves his commitment with Bill Davis Racing...and Quiroga goes out and wins the pole! Of course, he failed to lead a single lap, but that didn't stop him from managing an 8th-place run. At first, I doubted the 33 team's strategy of pitting before most everyone else on green-flag pit stops, but it actually worked in their favor and got the #33 within one spot of breaking the top-20 in owner's points! Just when things looked down for Team Monster Energy, they're suddenly up again!

This was a great day at the house built by the Villeneuve family, and I'm already excited for next year's race...as long as somebody does something about that turn 5 wall.