Thursday, July 31, 2008

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series: Doug Brown looking forward to return to Montreal

BRANTFORD, ON - Doug Brown resumes his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule this coming weekend in Montreal when the all-Canadian stock car racing series joins the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

It will the Brantford competitor's first race since July 5th at St. Eustache, Quebec where he earned his third straight top-ten finish after a disappointing start to the season at Cayuga Speedway. The veteran driver of the Haldex-sponsored Dodge elected to skip the recent western segment of the 13-race schedule and is anxious to get back into the action and resume his steady performance improvements prior to the break.

Brown had climbed to tenth-place in the standings following his run at St. Eustache but now finds himself in 19th-place having missed the events in Vernon, BC and Edmonton.

"It was a costly decision in terms of where we are now in the standings (by not going west) but in looking at the results of the western races we may have saved ourselves a lot of money given the motor attrition some of those who went west experienced", Doug remarked in assessing his current position.

Despite his drop in the overall standings he remains optimistic that he can still salvage a top-15 or better position in the standings before the season is over.

"A lot can happen in the remaining seven events, so we'll just attempt to regain our momentum and see what we can muster. "

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series teams will practice Friday morning at the famed circuit on Île Notre-Dame beginning at 8:00 am with qualifying session scheduled for 12:30 pm.

The 23-lap/100 km NCATS event schedule for Saturday morning begins with drivers' presentation at 9:35 followed by the 10:20 race start.

Strong Canadian Contingent in NAPA 200: This year's NASCAR Nationwide Series NAPA 200 will have a strong representation of Canadians vying for spots in the starting field.

Former Formula One and CART driver Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles Villeneuve for whom the track was named, has reached agreement with a group of sponsors (Groupe Savoie of Les Résidences Soleil, Schick Canada, L'Équipeur and Marks Work Wearhouse, the UPS Store Canada, Hype Energy Drinks, and Ganotech for his ride in the Braun Racing No. 32 Toyota Camry. Villeneuve has captured championships in both the CART Series in 1995 and Formula 1 two years later. He has also won the 1995 Indy 500.

Patrick Carpentier a regular in NASCAR's premier Sprint Series, captured the pole position for last year's inaugural Canadian event and went on to finish second in the race. Carpentier's Gillett Evernham team decided he would skip the regular Sprint Cup series race in Pocono this weekend to concentrate on the Montreal event. This will be his fifth Nationwide start this season.

D.J. Kennington, currently third in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series standings, will being double-duty this weekend by driving the No. 81 Mahindra Tractor Dodge in the NASCAR Nationwide Series special. Kennington has already entered 17 of the 24 Nationwide Series events run todate (24th in points) with his best finish being 23rd in Nashville.

Other Canadians expected to enter the Nationwide event are Ron Fellows, Wheeler and Trevor Boys plus current NASCAR Canadian Tire points leader Scott Steckly and veteran Don Thomson, Jr. currently 131 points behind Steckly and a mere 12 points ahead of Kennington.

Prepared By: Ken Spencer // HB Motorsports

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