http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...EQoUj6mQlHGN3Q

Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier and Andrew Ranger have shined in NASCAR montreal practice.

Villeneuve is trying to finish well so he can get a full time ride in Nextel cup while Carpentier is showing steady improvement from his poor performance in the beginning of this season.

Andrew Ranger will be more interesting to watch because Ranger is an open wheel defect to stock car but went through the route of CASCAR and became the CASCAR champion in 2007. Ranger might break disappointing streak of CASCAR crossovers and land a full time ride in Nextel Cup.

All three are former open wheel drivers and stand a good chance to break the general trend for open wheel failure in NASCAR.

Of course these three arent the only drivers who's career balance on this one race. Max Papis is back hoping to rebound from a disappointing debut in Nextel Cup and Auggie Vidovich is trying to land a full time ride as well. To round out the underdogs also a CASCAR crossover D.J. Kennington's 20th is the brightest light to his mostly dim 2008 season.

It'll be a great race in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

And this might be the first time since the NASCAR race in Japan that NASCAR will race in the rain as goodyear brought rain tires to the track

Multiple CASCAR repeat winner Don Thomson Jr. is also in the field

It's raining and they are actually pulling out the rain tires/windshield wipers.

Nascar race in the wet?

Link to a stream NOW, please!

Edit: Found one, I think. It is right that they didn't start yet?

My friend said the same thing.



EDIT: Found a stream! http://www.nascar.com/multimedia/webcast/busch/index.html

First time I'm seeing a race like this.

It's amazing and somehow very cute that it's soo low-tech. They've got like 5-stud wheels and are going to attach the windscreen wipers when and if it starts to rain. lol

Also, the rain tyres they're using were supposedly manufactured in 2001! Seriously, some people wouldn't drive their Opel to the grocery's on tyres that old.

This is turning into a fun race to watch. Mind you, I just turned it on and I'm watching caution laps in pouring rain. JV and Joey Logano have just run into stuff due to poor visibility. I'll keep watching untill the shenanigans stop.

Quote from Linsen :

First time I'm seeing a race like this.

It's amazing and somehow very cute that it's soo low-tech. They've got like 5-stud wheels and are going to attach the windscreen wipers when and if it starts to rain. lol

Also, the rain tyres they're using were supposedly manufactured in 2001! Seriously, some people wouldn't drive their Opel to the grocery's on tyres that old.

Nascar hasn't had a rain situation in years. They've never actually used them before in a race condition.

too bad for Legano and Villeneuve for the accident due to low visibility at the end. With conditions like that NASCAR should have brought out the red flag immediately. But absolutely great race and great job to the oval nascar drivers adapting very well to the new conditions. Many have never raced in Gilles Villeneuve or in the rain before. I'm very surprised to see that there was barely any incidents on the track when was pouring.

Bah, racing is funnier in rain and I liked to see the fight betweeb Ranger and (Insert name) in the last laps. Was my first Nascar race I ever watched.

Quote from Linsen :

and are going to attach the windscreen wipers when and if it starts to rain. lol

And that's on the cars that are actually fitted with windshield wipers, lol

I didn't get the chance to see any of this on TV, but I found a few minutes of footage on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzpeK2FPWo

If anyone else finds any more footage online, please post up, would be interesting to see!

Omg Nascar Isnt Going Round Circles??!

Ambrose was robbed thats all im saying

Quote from Michael Denham :

I didn't get the chance to see any of this on TV, but I found a few minutes of footage on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzpeK2FPWo

If anyone else finds any more footage online, please post up, would be interesting to see!

There's some really good footage of two NASCAR drivers fighting it out (I think it was Steven Wallace and Jason Leftler). Unfortunately I cant find it XD. Great job to Steve Wallace he was the most impressive coming from 40th to 10th in the rain and on a course he never been on before.

Edited: I uploaded a vid but I had to take it down

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

Omg Nascar Isnt Going Round Circles??!

IDK if this is a joke or just plain ignorance. Of course NASCAR races on circuits. They have been since 1957 (at the Glen) where have you been?

Quote from AstroBoy :

Ambrose was robbed thats all im saying

IMO it was just bad luck. In the replay footage he was braking as hard as he could to make the speed limit. But his car slipped in the water. Just a factor of the elements based on what I've seen. But atleast he got a podium, Villeneuve ended up 16th, Papis ended up 20th and Ranger got 27th. So it wasn't really THAT bad of a day

Quote from wheel4hummer :

And that's on the cars that are actually fitted with windshield wipers, lol

LOL Carl Edwards incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgmyB1jy3J4

Quote from lizardfolk :

LOL Carl Edwards incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgmyB1jy3J4

That's awesome Glad to see they have a sense of humour and ingenuity!

I was really talking about the Pit lane incident, it was more the fact that if the race wasnt red flagged, chances are he would have won, thats the robbed part.

ROFL.

but don't they wear gloves?

Quote from JJ72 :

ROFL.

but don't they wear gloves?

Some do, some don't, personal choice.

Surely it would make sense to get rid of the headlamp stickers and replace them with actual lights for wet races? Maybe even rain lights. I'm surprised that they haven't used wets since 2001 but then again they only race on road courses twice a year.

I imagine NASCAR races in the wet could be even more interesting. Imagine NASCAR machinery with Fuji last year weather ...

Quote from AstroBoy :

I was really talking about the Pit lane incident, it was more the fact that if the race wasnt red flagged, chances are he would have won, thats the robbed part.

Astro the race should have been red flagged immediately when the heavy rain and fog settled in. While it would be true that NASCAR can still race in that condition, a lot of the cars did not have windshield wipers (as you may have saw). Therefore when the heavy rain came in almost half of the field couldn't see and that ended up in the Villeneuve/Legano pile up.

NASCAR should have red flagged the race immediately instead of going to caution.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Surely it would make sense to get rid of the headlamp stickers and replace them with actual lights for wet races? Maybe even rain lights. I'm surprised that they haven't used wets since 2001 but then again they only race on road courses twice a year.

I imagine NASCAR races in the wet could be even more interesting. Imagine NASCAR machinery with Fuji last year weather ...

NASCAR at Suzuka was similar

Quote from Michael Denham :

That's awesome Glad to see they have a sense of humour and ingenuity!

Here's another footage and this one's pretty good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... qlFNU&feature=related

I'm still surprised to see the NASCAR drivers adapt so well to the rain on a course most are not real familiar with

I was there and it was SHAWEEET . First time I go see a race in my life and was very nice.

Early in the morning we got there. 8:00 AM and walked around for quite a while to find a good spot (we werent on the stands but we honestly found better then the stands). After some walking we decided to stay between turn 6 and 7 and it was amazin. We could see them accelerating from turn 5 like crazy and then heavy braking into turn 6 and accelerating again into turn 7 and hear the engins roaring going into the straight. It was simply amazing. Those things are so loud it's incredible !

After settling there there was a 33 lap sprint race that started around 10 I believe which was very interusting and full of close racing. Car number 84, duno the name, was leading the whoole race and then screwed up last lap and started to get overtaken and came were we were between turn 6 and 7 and was forced wide coming into turn 6 and crashed right in front of us ! Was pretty damn nice.

We waited a bit more and then around 12:30 the qualifying started for the Nationwide race and it was pretty interusting seeing them come through that tight chicane at full speed. 1 spin during qual right in front of us !

Then the race. Started out really well. Carpentier and Villeneuve were one behind the other and pressuring eachother with number 5 mixed in there aswell and made it really interusting. The rain started later during the race and that was interuting aswell. They started to slide across the chicane :P. We didn't see crashes under the rain though because they were pretty cautious. Only heard about the couple of crashes under SC on the radio because we had the radio on to follow what was happening on the rest of the track .

Great experience and pretty damn fun race I'm definetly going there for F1 next year.

I'll be uploading some video's and pic's soon enough.

Oh you were there for the CASCAR race as well, cool. CASCAR and Nationwide ran back to back that day. Good job to Andrew Ranger for winning that CASCAR race and Ranger was there for the Nationwide race in the #22 car as well (he was 6th at one time fighting Villeneuve).

Good to see you had a good time Tea

Yeah I had a great time. I guess it was the CASCAR race :P It was really interusting too and very close racing specially on that last lap it was intense.

The Nationwide race was pretty cool too. Pretty intense seeing Villeneuve, Carpentier and number 5 grr i always forget his name racing eachother really close. Sucks that Villeneuve crashed under SC but, hey, windshield wipers is a must in those condtions!

I seriously had a crazy view. I'm getting my bro to send me the vids and pics he took and ill get my pics and vids on the computer and post them here soon enough.

I didn't get to see the race, but just looking at clips were the puddles are 8 cm deep on the racing line meant it had to be cool!

Wish I was there.

Yeah lol and there was a puddle on the racing line were theres heavy braking coming to turn 6 so they had to brake early then let go and brake again. It was pretty intense. THen coming into turn 7 there was another puddle. Was interusting and fun