Ambrose captures Nationwide win in Montreal

Marcos Ambrose exorcised personal demons and erased several occasions where he had to come from the back of the field to score his second NASCAR win in six days, this time the Nationwide Series' NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The Australian was one of three drivers competing in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup events this weekend. Coupled with fellow Ford drivers Carl Edwards and Trevor Bayne, Ambrose barely made the start of the race after arriving at the track from the Cup practice and qualifying sessions in Michigan.

Ambrose's charge through the field up to second came undone on a lap 47 restart when Jacques Villeneuve slid off course at Turn 2, and re-entered back across the circuit into Ambrose's right-front quarter panel. On the same lap, Ambrose engaged in a form of payback by punting Villeneuve at the turn 6/7 left/right complex.

“I'd felt pretty hard done in here before,” Ambrose said. “I thought it would end my day; it was a bit of a boneheaded move. He must have lost talent across the grass. He hit the side of the car, not the wheels. It bent the steering just a little bit. We got lucky and made the most of it.”

Once Ambrose was able to catch to up the field during the third full course caution and a host of the cars in front of him pitted, it was a straight shot between him and the remaining local contender Alex Tagliani for the win.

The final restart with 10 laps to go, Ambrose passed Tagliani into turn one and drove off. Michael McDowell briefly got around Tagliani as well before “Tag” got him back for the eventual second place finish. McDowell was third.

“I was so happy and fortunate to race here with Penske and the Dodge Challenger,” Tagliani said. “It was unfortunate for Jacques. We went with a car that was good for long run and on the tires. All the restarts were pretty tough for us.”

While the Villeneuve-Ambrose dust-up was part of the story, the other involved Steve Wallace and Patrick Carpentier, as Wallace made a banzai passing attempt into the hairpin that came up empty.

Carpentier lunged down the inside of Wallace's teammate Michael Annett and had about a quarter-panel length advantage into the corner. Wallace barreled in for a three-wide maneuver, which was always going to be difficult to complete. Wallace and Carpentier collided, with the Canadian spinning out.

“There were a couple challenging moments today,” Wallace said. “I tried to outbrake him, he crowded me, and I got loose, I spun him out. I heard he was upset, guess I would be too.”

Wallace continued to a career-best fourth place finish while Carpentier's day ended after he restarted, apparent transmission problems ending his final start before retiring from driving.

“We had a great car and were just taking our time. I guess Steven Wallace hasn't learned how to brake yet,” a bemused Carpentier said.

As Wallace returned to the pits, one of Carpentier's crewmembers reached into his car and pulled some of his hair. Wallace later said to TV pit reporters, “Only girls pull hair.”

Largely out of the view of the cameras, probably to their benefit, were J.R. Fitzpatrick and Scott Speed, who turned in career best finishes of fifth and sixth behind Wallace. Edwards, Justin Allgaier, Jason Leffler and Elliott Sadler completed the top 10.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. struggled to 26th but still leads the Nationwide Series points standings, unofficially, by eight points over Sadler and nine over Reed Sorenson.

Villeneuve led the most laps, 29, but fell to a lapped 27th with lots of damage over the course of the day. Danica Patrick stayed on the lead lap for most of the day, fighting brake issues, and wound up 24th by the checkered flag. Her female counterpart, Maryeve Dufault, had several spins in a challenging series debut that ended in 30th.