NASCAR appears headed back to Montreal in 2009

By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor

Monday, August 04, 2008

Robert Laberge
Getty Images

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The Nationwide Series appears likely to return to Montreal for 2009 and it could be the only international race on the No. 2 series’ schedule.

NASCAR has already said it would not return to Mexico City next year, but NASCAR Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell said officials from the sanctioning body “anticipate” Montreal being back on the schedule for 2009.

O’Donnell said Circuit Gilles Villeneuve would not host a Sprint Cup date in 2009, and he would not speculate on whether the Cup series would race there beyond ’09.

“We were a little bit surprised just how big NASCAR is in general in Canada,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell said the Canadian Tire Series has been well received, perhaps even more than NASCAR hoped. Part of the goal of that series is to produce Canadian driving talent for NASCAR’s three national series, and O’Donnell cited Andrew Ranger as hope for that farm series.

Ranger, a Canadian, won the Canadian Tire Series race at Montreal on Saturday.

Team owners and competitors enjoy the Montreal event, saying the cost of racing there is comparable to going to California to race at Auto Club Speedway.

“I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t tell you that they don’t like coming to Montreal,” Team Rensi Motorsports President Ronnie Russell said. “I’ll be the first one to tell you, I like coming to Montreal, even though it is a road course. You feel good coming here. I see a lot of promise here in Canada. And that’s good, because we need to be up here. And we need to be up here with a round track, too.”