Although Carl Edwards beat Ron Fellows by over four seconds at NASCAR’s debut at Road America, Jacques Villeneuve’s broken alternator wire ended a more serious challenge.
Carl Edwards, who started from the pole, surged back into the lead on a late race restart retaking the lead from Villeneuve, who had previously won at the four-mile road course when he was driving the CART series. It was Edwards’ first victory of the year.
The former Formula One World champion, Jacques Villeneuve, took his Toyota three-wide in turns to briefly take the lead.
So it’s no wonder that the ecstatic Edwards said “to race with Jacques Villeneuve all day and hold off Ron Fellows at the end, it’s just cool.
“I tried to do everything I could to do it right at the end. I heard noises in the transmission and thought third gear was coming apart, but it held together,” he added after doing one of his patented post-victory back flips.
Jacques Villeneuve said “That was fun. That’s one place I knew I was braking later than the 60 (Carl Edwards). I had seen it all race and I was close enough. It was three-wide and I knew it was going to be tight, but you have to take your chances when they’re available. He was quicker than us all through the race so I had to take my chance when I could. I was battling the front brakes all race. Then at the end, after the last restart, the car was really, really quick, but then we had electrical problems.”
The race was relatively incident-free for the first half of the 50-lap race around the four-mile road circuit. Then the rough and tumble action began.
A ten-car crash in turn six caused a red flag stoppage for more than 30-minutes. With the field bunched up drivers took big risks which caused further incidents and yellow caution flags.
Jacques Villeneuve said “it was actually a lot more fun than expected. The cars drove really well around the course and it was a fun race. It was obviously a lot different than the last time I was here, but it was fun out there today.”
Ron Fellows admitted to local reporters, after the race, “Carl was super-strong all day and just an absolute rocket," he said. "There was nothing we could do. He was behind me at one point, but I couldn't even attempt to stay with him.”
Brendan Gaughan finished third.
Carl Edwards, who started from the pole, surged back into the lead on a late race restart retaking the lead from Villeneuve, who had previously won at the four-mile road course when he was driving the CART series. It was Edwards’ first victory of the year.
The former Formula One World champion, Jacques Villeneuve, took his Toyota three-wide in turns to briefly take the lead.
So it’s no wonder that the ecstatic Edwards said “to race with Jacques Villeneuve all day and hold off Ron Fellows at the end, it’s just cool.
“I tried to do everything I could to do it right at the end. I heard noises in the transmission and thought third gear was coming apart, but it held together,” he added after doing one of his patented post-victory back flips.
Jacques Villeneuve said “That was fun. That’s one place I knew I was braking later than the 60 (Carl Edwards). I had seen it all race and I was close enough. It was three-wide and I knew it was going to be tight, but you have to take your chances when they’re available. He was quicker than us all through the race so I had to take my chance when I could. I was battling the front brakes all race. Then at the end, after the last restart, the car was really, really quick, but then we had electrical problems.”
The race was relatively incident-free for the first half of the 50-lap race around the four-mile road circuit. Then the rough and tumble action began.
A ten-car crash in turn six caused a red flag stoppage for more than 30-minutes. With the field bunched up drivers took big risks which caused further incidents and yellow caution flags.
Jacques Villeneuve said “it was actually a lot more fun than expected. The cars drove really well around the course and it was a fun race. It was obviously a lot different than the last time I was here, but it was fun out there today.”
Ron Fellows admitted to local reporters, after the race, “Carl was super-strong all day and just an absolute rocket," he said. "There was nothing we could do. He was behind me at one point, but I couldn't even attempt to stay with him.”
Brendan Gaughan finished third.