The NASCAR Nationwide Series is currently in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for their one scheduled event to be held north of the border. The race is to be held on Saturday, August 2 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Qualifying will take place at 12:10 p.m. on Saturday, August 2, before the race occurs later that day at 3:30 p.m.

Teams on the entry list for the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge include:

Num  Driver              Hometown
  0  Wheeler Boys        Calgary, Alberta
  1  Mike Bliss          Milwaukie, OR
 01  Trevor Boys         Calgary, Alberta
  2  Clint Bowyer        Emporia, KS
  4  Landon Cassill      Cedar Rapids, IA
  5  Ron Fellows         Mississauga, Ontario
 05  Burney Lamar        W. Sacramento, CA
  6  David Ragan         Unadilla, GA
  7  Mike Wallace        St. Louis, MO
  9  Patrick Carpentier  Joliette, Quebec
 10  Justin Marks        Rocklin, CA
 16  Greg Biffle         Vancouver, WA
 20  Joey Logano         Middletown, CT
 22  Andrew Ranger       Roxton Pond, Quebec
 24  Eric McClure        Chilhowie, VA
 25  Boris Said          Carlsbad, CA
 27  Brad Coleman        Houston, TX
 28  Kenny Wallace       St. Louis, MO
 29  Scott Wimmer        Wausau, WI
 30  Stanton Barrett     Bishop, CA
 32  Jacques Villeneuve  Montreal, Quebec
 33  Ron Hornaday        Palmdale, CA
 38  Jason Leffler       Long Beach, CA
 40  Scott Pruett        Sacramento, CA
 47  Kelly Bires         Mauston, WI
 52  Scott Gaylord       Lakewood, CO
 59  Marcos Ambrose      Launceston, Tasmania
 60  Carl Edwards        Columbia, MO
 64  Max Papis           Como, Italy
 66  Steve Wallace       Mooresville, NC
 81  D.J. Kennington     St. Thomas, Ontario
 84  Mike Harmon         Birmingport, AL
 88  Brad Keselowski     Rochester Hills, MI
 89  Morgan Shepherd     Conover, NC
 90  Don Thomson Jr.     Ayr, Ontario
 91  Scott Steckly       Milverton, Ontario
 99  David Reutimann     Zephyrhills, FL
109  Kevin O'Connell     Newport Beach, CA
111  Jason Keller        Greenville, SC
149  Derrike Cope        Spanaway, WA
161  Stan Barrett        Bishop, CA
162  Brandon Whitt       El Cajon, CA
198  Alex Garcia         Caracas, Venezuela
331  Kenny Hendrick      Chino, CA

The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series will head out shortly for their first of several practice sessions today at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.

The Grand-Am portion of today’s schedule includes:

12:30 to 01:30 p.m. – Free Practice
02:00 to 03:00 p.m. – Free Practice
03:30 to 04:30 p.m. – Free Practice
05:00 to 05:30 p.m. – Final Practice
05:30 to 06:00 p.m. – Final Practice**

** (for Trueman/Akin Award Participants Only)

The series will hold its qualifying sessions starting tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. followed by their two hour race, which is scheduled to be the last action on the track tomorrow, beginning at 4:15 p.m.

For full event schedule from Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, please see this page:

2008 Racing Schedule for Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

After hours of what seemed to be nothing but caution periods at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson finally crossed the finish line taking the checkered flag. There was little racing on the track, but it did leave room for lots of strategy in the pits. Despite what people may have thought about the race, Jimmie Johnson did agree with the NASCAR officials’ decision to call the six competition cautions during the 200 lap race.

“As much as I didn’t like it,” Johnson said of the yellow flags, “I’ve got to commend NASCAR for calling a safe race.”

And that’s what it comes down to, safety. Even without NASCAR calling all the competition yellows, the race probably wouldn’t have run much different. There still would have been caution after caution, but they would have come from blown tires – resulting in what could have been disastrous racing. Even with calling the scheduled competition yellows, there was still an additional five caution periods during the race – several due to tire wear.

The Top-5 finishers in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard were:

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Carl Edwards
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Elliott Sadler
5. Jeff Gordon

For full results, please see the following link:

2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Results

A late race call to stay on slick tires must have been the right decision for Bernd Schneider, because after the race was finished at a rather soaked Nurburgring, he was the one standing at the top of the podium. Schneider wasn’t the only driver to gamble with the dry tires however, as the third and fourth placed drivers, Jamie Green and Gary Paffett, also stayed out on their slicks.

“I thank my team for their great efforts and for the right tire choice,” Schneider said following the race. “This was the key to success.”

The second place finisher, Schneider’s teammate Paul di Resta, opted for a set of wet weather tires. These were the obvious faster choice, as di Resta was gaining around five seconds a lap on his teammate – not enough however to fully make up for the extra pit stop. Had the race been a couple laps longer, things probably would have ended differently for the two Mercedes drivers.

Di Resta had this to say about the decision, “It was tricky to keep the car on the track in the rain. In the end we decided to change to wet tires because we didn’t want to take chances with respect to the championship.”

The Top-5 finishers were:

1 Bernd Schneider
2 Paul di Resta
3 Jamie Green
4 Gary Paffett
5 Timo Scheider

For the full results of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race at Nurburgring, please see the following link:

2008 DTM at Nurburgring Results

It only took eight races behind the wheel of a stock car for Alex Tagliani to win his first NASCAR: Canadian Tire Series race. He beat out this year’s points leader, Scott Steckly, for the victory at Rexall Speedway in Edmonton. Steckly raced across the finish line in second position.

“Wow! What a thrill this is. We’ve had some problems this year with the equipment, but all the credit goes to the crew. They gave me a great car and all I had to do was drive,” Tagliani said of the event during the post-race interviews.

“Steckly certainly made it difficult all over the track,” Tagliani continued. “His car has so much power this year and he was a handful, but once Ranger started putting pressure on him, I was able to drive away a little. He drove me clean, though, and I appreciate that.”

Steckly responded by saying, “I tried everything I could. He definitely had the best car today.”

Other top finishers of the Edmonton Canadian Tire Series 100 included Tagliani’s teammate, Andrew Ranger in third, J.R. Fitzpatrick in fourth, and D.J. Kennington who finished the race in the fifth position.

Scott Dixon saw his fifth victory of the season today following the Rexall Edmonton Indy in Alberta, Canada. This victory extended his championship lead to 65 points over second place driver, Helio Castroneves. Castroneves on the other hand, managed to come home with yet another second place finish. That marks his sixth runner-up finish this year alone.

Edmonton also marked the return of open-wheel veteran Paul Tracy. Following the end of the former Champ Car World Series, the driver has faced troubles in securing himself a ride. Though today’s race was only his second IndyCar Series start, he has in fact amassed the most wins of any active driver in open-wheel racing today, with 31 race wins.

Perhaps his fourth place finish will help secure him a seat for future races.

The Top-5 finishers of the Rexall Edmonton Indy were as follows:

1. Scott Dixon
2. Helio Castroneves
3. Justin Wilson
4. Paul Tracy
5. Oriol Servia

Today’s qualifying sessions for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters were cut short because of a torrential downpour. It was following the cleanup for Mike Rockenfeller’s accident that officials decided not to continue with the qualifying sessions for safety reasons. The call was made during the second of the three scheduled qualifying sessions.

By DTM rules, the starting grid for Sunday’s race will use the results from the first qualifying heat. This means that Tom Kristensen will be starting from the pole position at Nurburgring.

“Indeed, it is a little bit strange to be on pole after such a qualifying,” Kristensen said once the qualifying sessions were officially announced as over. “But that is what the rules are like.”

The top qualifiers included:

1. Tom Kristensen
2. Mike Rockenfeller
3. Martin Tomczyk
4. Gary Paffett
5. Mattias Ekstrom

Johnny Benson won the Power Stroke Diesel 200 presented by AAA Hoosier Insurance, beating out Ron Hornaday who lead the most laps of the race. This was Benson’s second straight NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win, and his third victory of the season. The highest placing rookie was Donny Lia who finished ninth.

The race, which was held at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, saw a record-tying 11 cautions, which resulted in several cars not finishing the event. Unable to return to the track after their accidents were Johnny Chapman, Chad McCumbee, Justin Marks and Brian Scott.

Derrike Cope Inc. also had a rough day with both cars falling out of the race early – Derrike Cope himself leaving the race after just nine laps with power steering issues. Fellow Derrike Cope Inc. driver Nick Tucker made an additional ten laps before his day ended with engine troubles.

The Top-5 finishers were:

1. Johnny Benson
2. Ron Hornaday
3. Erik Darnell
4. Matt Crafton
5. Shelby Howard

The American Red Cross disaster relief efforts will be getting a bit of a boost this Sunday from Lowe’s, the sponsor of Jimmie Johnson’s #48 Impala SS. Lowe’s Companies Inc. will be joining the Racing for Relief program this July 27th to help disaster victims.

Lowe’s will donate $48 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for every lap that Johnson completes during the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard, hosted by Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In addition, they’ve also agreed to give $4,800 should Johnson win the race.

On a similar note, Greg Biffle, the spokesman for Red Cross Racing, will be driving his #16 Ford Fusion featuring the Red Cross during the 2008 season – something that was made possible by a generous donation from 3M.

The hope is that this campaign will increase the nation’s blood supply, by offering a fun, new way to give. Participants also have the chance to win exclusive prizes, for more information, please see redcrossracing.com.

The Rexall Edmonton Indy is currently its second scheduled day of events in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Yesterday’s action saw mostly practices for the various series’ in attendance, along with the qualifying sessions for the GT Invitational and the first Atlantic Championship race. James Hinchcliffe grabbed the pole for the Atlantic race.

Expected to qualify later today are the Atlantic Championship for their second race, the NASCAR: Canadian Tire Series (formerly CASCAR), and IndyCar. The GT Invitational and Atlantic Championship are also scheduled to race before the day wraps up.

The IndyCar qualifying is planned to run from 3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. today and the actual IndyCar race is scheduled to run for two hours starting at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow on Saturday, July 26.