Biffle splashes way to 8th-place finish

While Greg Biffle had fun in the first major NASCAR points race in the rain, the Sprint Cup driver won't be quite as eager the next time it pours.

"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," Biffle said Saturday after the Nationwide Series race at rain-drenched Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.


"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 miles an hour hydroplane is not very safe. It made it hard to see there at the end. It was raining so hard and everything was getting so wet. The guys said there was an inch of water in the right side of the car on the floorboard. So the car started to fill with water and we were going to start having electrical problems."

Biffle, also racing Sunday in the Sprint Cup race at Pocono, finished eighth in the race -- the first major NASCAR points event ever run on grooved rain tires.

"It was fun. It was a lot of fun," he said. "I'm glad I made history today."

David Reutimann, also doing double-duty, finished 17th in the difficult conditions.

"It's probably not something we should do unless we come up with a better system to be able to see," Reutimann said. "The tires worked fine. All that stuff worked OK. I don't have a problem with that, just the lack of being able to see is the big issue and that's pretty dangerous. If we come up with a better scenario there's no reason why we couldn't do it in the future, but not with what we have now."

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LOGANO CRASHES: Teen star Joey Logano finished 17th in his first NASCAR road-course start after crashing during the final caution period.

"I hit a lapped car with no brake lights. I have no idea who it was," the 18-year-old driver said. "I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me down the straightaway, under caution. Somebody stopped. I locked up all four and boom! ... It's just not right."

In position to replace Tony Stewart next year in Joe Gibbs Racing's Sprint Cup lineup, Logano won at Kentucky Speedway in June in his third Nationwide Tour start and added second-place finishes at Milwaukee and Gateway.

"I'll take what I learned this weekend, try to forget about all the stupid stuff that happened and we'll get to do it again next week," Logano said.

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HOMEBREW: Quebec driver Andrew Ranger won the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race Saturday morning in dry conditions.

The 21-year-old Ranger, 29th in the Nationwide Series race, took advantage of leader J.R. Fitzpatrick's last-lap spin to win for the first time in eight races this season. Series leader Scott Steckly was second in the 23-lap race.

"I haven't won a race here in a long time and to do it in front of my family and fans is really nice," said Ranger, second last year.

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LUGNUTS: Nationwide Series leader Clint Bowyer finished ninth. He has a 168-point lead over fellow Sprint Cup driver Carl Edwards. ... Gilles Villeneuve, driver Jacques Villeneuve's father, was killed in a crash during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. The Montreal track was renamed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve soon after the accident.

Wallace hopeful of Nationwide date for Iowa

Now that Mexico City will not be on the Nationwide Series schedule in 2009, speculation is rampant about a replacement. And the one track that comes up constantly is Iowa Speedway.

But Rusty Wallace, who helped design the 0.875-mile track in Newton, Iowa, said NASCAR has not promised the track a date for next season.


"We have always asked NASCAR for a Nationwide race or a truck race, and there's never been room in the schedule," Wallace said at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, site of Saturday's NAPA Auto Parts 200. "Now, there's room in the schedule. NASCAR has not called me up and said, 'Hey, we're going to go to Iowa.' They have said they really like our track. They like what it looks like.

"At this point, I'm not going to speculate. I've got my fingers crossed. I hope we get it. But they have never come up to me and said, 'You're getting it. Here's the date.' We're absolutely 100 percent at their mercy."

Nationwide Series driver Landon Cassill, an Iowa native, said he'd love to be able to race there next year.

"It's just an awesome race track," Cassill said. "I raced there in Late Models, and there's three grooves in Late Models. I'd hate to see what it'd do in a Nationwide car. It would open up pretty good.

"Rusty did a nice job designing the place. Everything from the track surface to the campgrounds and the stands and the club seats, the bus lot. Every garage has a drain for your cool-down units, so you don't have water all over the place. Everything is so nice and state-of-the-art, you'd be crazy not to go there."

Wallace, of course, would agree.

"If Iowa Speedway could be the recipient of that [Mexico] date, I'd gladly take it," Wallace said. "But I've got to reiterate, they have not told us. I don't want to lead anybody on."

Fellows wins in the rain in Montreal

Carl Edwards used a squeegee to clean his windshield while he drove under caution. Jacques Villeneuve and Joey Logano wrecked with the yellow flag flying. And rooster tails flew off the grooved -- yes, grooved -- back tires.

It certainly was a history-making day at rainy Circuit Gilles Villeneuve -- right down to the winner, Canadian road-racer Ron Fellows.


In the first NASCAR points race run on grooved rain tires, Fellows splashed his way to victory -- his fourth road-race win in 13 Nationwide Series starts -- in the event that ended 26 laps early because of heavy rain and poor visibility.

"Visibility was the big, big problem," said Fellows, the first Canadian winner in a major NASCAR race in Canada. "At over 70 mph, there was just so much spray."

The 48-year-old Ontario driver took advantage of Marcos Ambrose's pit-road speeding penalty to take the lead, and had about a half-minute advantage over fellow Canadian Patrick Carpentier when the NAPA Auto Parts 200 was red-flagged.

"It's very dangerous," Fellows said minutes before the race was called.

After just eight laps on the 2.71-mile, 14-turn road course, rain and lightning forced an eight-minute delay. The cars returned to the track with the grooved Goodyear tires and many also had a single windshield wiper.

"This is ridiculous," early leader Scott Pruett said over his radio.

Grooved tires also were used in 1999 during a Craftsman Truck Series practice on the road course at Watkins Glen. In 1997, rain tires were used in practice and qualifying for an exhibition race in Japan.

After averaging about 90 mph on the regular slick tires before the rain arrived, the leaders' average speed dropped to about 75 mph on the grooved tires.

"That was different," Fellows said. "This is incredible."

Fellows, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports, led the final seven laps. Ambrose finished third after leading a race-high 27 laps.

Ron Hornaday was fourth, followed by Boris Said, Edwards, Jason Leffler, Greg Biffle, series leader Clint Bowyer and Scott Wimmer.

"All in all, I'm surprised how well everyone did and how few accidents there were," Said said. "In the end, people were wrecking under caution because you just couldn't see. The cars were hydroplaning."

Villeneuve, the former Formula One and CART champion racing on the track named after his late father, had so much trouble seeing out of his Toyota that he ran into the back of another car during the final caution period.

Running sixth at the time of the accident, he ended up 15th.

"I couldn't see a thing," Villeneuve said.

Logano also wrecked during the final caution.

"I hit a lapped car with no brake lights. I have no idea who it was," Logano said. "I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me down the straightaway, under caution. Somebody stopped. I locked up all four and boom! ... It's just not right."

The teen star finished 16th.

"It was fun, but it's not good to see guys wrecking under yellow," Edwards said.

The historic tire move came a week after tire troubles derailed the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis. Goodyear's tires weren't durable enough to withstand more than 10 or so laps at a time, creating a chaotic and confusing caution-filled race.