Jacques Villeneuve finishes 3rd at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis.—Call it what you will, but the finish of Saturday’s Bucyrus 200 Nationwide Series race was certainly interesting—and drawn out.



The scheduled 50-lap race on Road America’s 4.048-mile road course needed three green-white-checkered-flag attempts to determine a winner, and even on Lap 57, it was difficult to see that Reed Sorenson had won his first race since 2007.

For most of the afternoon, the race was relatively clean. Then came the final laps, and Road America morphed into something resembling a demolition derby, forcing the maximum overtime attempts allowed to determine the winner.

The race ended under caution, which was fitting considering all the pushing, grinding and shoving that sent countless cars into the road course’s expansive gravel traps.

It also ended under a cloud of uncertainty—and drama.

Justin Allgaier took the white flag and had the lead when the seventh and final caution was thrown because Aric Almirola’s No. 88 Chevrolet had stopped on the track in Turn 5. But Allgaier ran out of gas in Turn 6, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether Sorenson or Ron Fellows had inherited the lead—even though Sorenson was running second behind Allgaier and Fellows third.

Before declaring the winner, NASCAR officials took an extra look at the video feeds. They determined that Fellows had moved ahead of Sorenson after the yellow had been thrown, thus giving the win to Sorenson.

“This is not the place I thought I’d win a race,” Sorenson said. “I’d never been here before.”

The restarts produced by the green-white-checkers contributed to the late race mayhem, Sorenson said.

“It’s easy for the guys to get bundled up and have wrecks,” he said. “We were able to capitalize on that. When the last caution came out, Justin was first, and we were second. We were able to break away and stay in second place. Justin ran out of gas in Turn 6, and we were able to make it around and even have some gas left for some doughnuts.”

Fellows, who was scored second, was disappointed with his result.

“We got ourselves in a little bit of trouble, anyway,” he said. “For whatever reason, on the restarts toward the end, I just couldn’t get any forward traction.”

Jacques Villeneuve, who had an eventful afternoon, Elliott Sadler and Mike Wallace rounded out the top five.



Villeneuve was apologetic for a Turn 1 incident on the first GWC attempt. The incident put Max Papis and Brian Scott out of the race. On the restart, Villeneuve attempted to move to the inside of Scott only to run out of pavement where the Road America’s pit lane blends with the front straight. Villeneuve drifted back and bumped into the right rear fender of Scott, which sent Scott into Papis and both into the gravel on the outside of Turn 1.

“When I put two wheels on the grass, I really didn’t want to be there,” Villeneuve said.

The win pushed Sorenson up two spots and into first in the standings by five points over Sadler. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished eighth and dropped from first to third. Allgaier finished 19th and remained fourth in the standings but is now 34 points behind the leader.

Nascar Road America - Practice 1 Results, Jacques Villneuev 2nd

Practice 1
Road America
2nd Annual BUCYRUS 200 Presented by Menards
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Fri, June 24, 2011 @ 03:05 PM Eastern

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed Lap # # Laps -Fastest -Next

1 60 Billy Johnson Fastenal Ford 134.871 108.050 11 11 ---.--- ---.---
2 22 Jacques Villeneuve Discount Tire Dodge 134.938 107.996 6 9 -0.067 -0.067
3 18 Michael McDowell(i) Pizza Ranch Toyota 134.968 107.972 2 8 -0.097 -0.030
4 33 Max Papis Rheem/Menards Chevrolet 135.384 107.640 4 12 -0.513 -0.416
5 2 Elliott Sadler OneMain Financial Chevrolet 135.478 107.566 15 15 -0.607 -0.094
6 7 Ron Fellows AER Chevrolet 135.571 107.492 4 12 -0.700 -0.093
7 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. RickyvsTrevor.com Ford 135.655 107.425 8 8 -0.784 -0.084
8 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Chevrolet 136.215 106.984 4 8 -1.344 -0.560
9 *16 Trevor Bayne RickyvsTrevor.com Ford 136.245 106.960 10 10 -1.374 -0.030
10 31 Justin Allgaier Florida Gulf Safe Chevrolet 136.651 106.642 3 5 -1.780 -0.406
11 32 Reed Sorenson Dollar General Chevrolet 136.917 106.435 8 8 -2.046 -0.266
12 66 Steve Wallace 5-Hour Energy Toyota 136.983 106.384 10 11 -2.112 -0.066
13 *67 J R Fitzpatrick Go Canada Racing Ford 137.125 106.274 6 6 -2.254 -0.142
14 *64 Jason Bowles Fuel Doctor Toyota 137.369 106.085 7 7 -2.498 -0.244
15 30 Ricky Carmichael(i) Monster Energy Chevrolet 137.615 105.895 11 13 -2.744 -0.246
16 11 Brian Scott Shore Lodge Toyota 137.615 105.895 6 9 -2.744 -0.000
17 09 Kenny Wallace Toyota Toyota 137.627 105.886 11 11 -2.756 -0.012
18 88 Aric Almirola TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet 137.930 105.654 14 17 -3.059 -0.303
19 19 Mike Bliss SheboyganAuto.com Chevrolet 138.472 105.240 6 6 -3.601 -0.542
20 39 Josh Wise Cajun Industries Ford 138.522 105.202 7 7 -3.651 -0.050
21 23 Alex Kennedy St. Baldrick's Dodge 138.582 105.157 2 9 -3.711 -0.060
22 62 Michael Annett Pilot/Flying J Toyota 138.783 105.004 7 11 -3.912 -0.201
23 01 Mike Wallace Cowboys & Aliens Chevrolet 139.197 104.692 6 6 -4.326 -0.414
24 81 Blake Koch # DAYSTAR.com Dodge 140.035 104.065 3 3 -5.164 -0.838
25 15 Timmy Hill # New Orleans Voodoo Ford 140.259 103.899 7 7 -5.388 -0.224
26 14 Eric McClure Hefty BlackOut/Reynolds Chevrolet 141.290 103.141 8 9 -6.419 -1.031
27 51 Jeremy Clements racedaysponsor.com Chevrolet 141.694 102.847 6 6 -6.823 -0.404
28 87 Kevin Conway AM/FM Energy/Wood & Pellet Stoves 142.759 102.080 2 2 -7.888 -1.065
29 *41 Doug Harrington New Orleans Voodoo Ford 144.892 100.577 3 5 -10.021 -2.133
30 89 Morgan Shepherd Victory in Jesus Chevrolet 148.431 98.179 1 1 -13.560 -3.539
31 52 Tim Schendel TRX Software Development /DirecTV Chevrolet 162.200 89.845 3 3 -27.329 -13.769
32 70 Dennis Setzer ML Motorsports Dodge 162.510 89.673 1 1 -27.639 -0.310
33 *75 Carl Long Lilly Trucking of VA Ford 0.000 0.000 0 0 -0.000 -0.000
34 *13 Jennifer Jo Cobb # DriverBoutique.com Ford 0.000 0.000 0 0 -0.000 -0.000

Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average

Pos Car Driver From Lap To Lap Avg Speed

1 33 Max Papis 2 11 1,457,347.310
2 88 Aric Almirola 2 11 728,717.105
3 66 Steve Wallace 2 11 728,715.318
4 09 Kenny Wallace 2 11 728,697.623
5 2 Elliott Sadler 2 11 485,826.098
6 60 Billy Johnson 2 11 87.497
7 7 Ron Fellows 3 12 78.641
8 30 Ricky Carmichael(i) 4 13 78.001
9 62 Michael Annett 2 11 67.826

* Car must run 10 consecutive laps on the track to be included in the above chart.*Required to qualify on time, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Jacques Villeneuve drives the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge in the garage area, during practice for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Bucyrus 200 presented by Menards at Road America on June 24 in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.

Road America - Jacques Villeneuve Nascar Media Press Conference Audio

Happy National Holiday Quebecois JVistes!



Below you'll find the audio of Nascar Media Press conference earlier today with Jacques Villeneuve.

He's in a great pre-race mood,

Nascar Media Press Conference Audio - Jacques Villeneuve