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.
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"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! "For the first time, for these guys to have a race in the rain, we actually got a race in, so it was a good thing," said third-place Marcos Ambrose, who was more angry at himself for a pit-road speeding violation that probably cost him the victory. "It felt really slow and the car was slipping around. And getting up to speed there, when we first put the [rain tires] on, I thought, 'I'm in real trouble here' because I had just no grip. Obviously, I had 'no grip' better than everyone else because we did pretty well.
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To NASCAR's credit, for not having run races in the rain very often, they did a pretty good job.
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MARCOS AMBROSE"It was treacherous, it was tricky. But all the drivers kept on the racetrack, for the most part, and we got the race in, which is important. To NASCAR's credit, for not having run races in the rain very often, they did a pretty good job."
Patrick Carpentier, who finished second, echoed those sentiments.
"I was surprised," Carpentier said. "I thought we'd have more spins than that, people off-track. These guys are very good. They stayed on track and sometimes some of the guys would go away and then come back to you.
"It was tough conditions. At the end, I was mad that they stopped it, but they had to stop it. I was sideways in fourth gear on the back straightaway and aquaplaning pretty much everywhere. It was fun. At least we got the race in for the fans. And the rain tires? Everybody had questions about it. Well, they worked, so it was good."
For others, the experience was fun, until conditions deteriorated.
"I kind of was looking forward to this because I've never raced in the rain, but I don't think I will be from now on," Greg Biffle said. "It was a lot of fun. It got a little hairy there when it started raining so hard. The car would hydroplane bad down the frontstretch and I mean a 140 or 150 mph hydroplane is not very safe. It made it hard to see there at the end."
Joey Logano had a top-five finish wiped out when he slammed hard into the back bumper of another car when someone ahead checked up.
"I hit a lapped car with no brake lights," Joey Logano said. "I have no idea who it was. I couldn't see five feet in front of me down the straightaway, under caution. Somebody stopped. I locked up all four and boom! I just stopped at the wall and that was it. It's just not right."
And fan favorite Villeneuve, who charged into the lead on Lap 40 when Ambrose pitted, wound up rolling slowly onto pit road with a heavily damaged front end -- again from lack of visibility.
"There when it started raining hard again I had some oil on the window and just couldn't get rid of it," he said. "The only thing I could use to drive was the edge of the track.
"With some speed it was clearing the water a little bit but as soon as we got behind the safety car, the pace car there, the water and oil stayed on the windshield and I couldn't see a thing. When everybody stopped I just ran into the back of them."
But Edwards pretty much summed it up for the majority of the fans and teams: "It was a great race, a lot of fun and see y'all next week."
What a glorious feeling. NASCAR's smiling again.
Wow I hope to see this in the cup seeries soon
