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.

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.