Alex Tagliani scores popular Nationwide pole in Montreal

Alex Tagliani scores popular Nationwide pole in Montreal

Aug. 17, 2012

By Dominic Fugure

Special for NASCAR Wire Service

MONTREAL -- Patrick Carpentier did it in 2007 and Jacques Villeneuve

did it last year. Now it's Alex Tagliani's turn to be the hometown

hero by scoring his first NASCAR Nationwide Series pole in his city.

Although he did not qualify in the final group of five fastest cars in

practice, Tagliani was able to turn the pole-winning lap in 1 minute, 40.865

seconds for a 96.687 mph average.

"I want to dedicate this pole to the fans who come and make this event

so special," said Tagliani while pointing to the grandstands. "I feel

that there was still a tenth or two left in the car. I wanted to do a

third flying lap with the tire pressures and temperatures at their

best but my crew chief Trent Owens wanted me to save fuel so we have

one more lap to go in our first stint in the race."

Sam Hornish Jr. had to settle for the outside of the front row despite

turning the best lap in the last qualifying group.

"It took me a little bit of time to find my marks on the course but

when came the time to qualify, I felt pretty good," said Hornish, the

best qualifier amongst the NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars. "I made a

little mistake in one of the corners of my first lap by riding the

curbs a little too much. That probably cost me the pole. I know that

JV (Hornish's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve) rides them completely so I

wanted to give it a try but I quickly realized that my car was not set

up for that. This being said, a front-row start on a road course has

to make you feel pretty good."

Villeneuve said he was disappointed by his performance even though

he achieved the third-best lap of the qualifying session.

"I got surprised by the car which braked much more that I thought it

would," said a dejected Villeneuve. "I braked too early all through my

laps and ruined my starting position. At least, I know the car has

good brakes, which is a good omen for the race."

Danica Patrick, with whom Villeneuve had a run-in at Road America,

will start besides the Quebec native on the second row while Owen Kelly

(qualifying the car for Kyle Busch), Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt, Ron

Fellows, Billy Johnson and Brian Scott completed the top 10. Fellows is

the only former winner of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 to take part in the

race this year.

Nationwide points leader Eliott Sadler could only manage

to obtain the 17th-fastest time.

"It is a little disappointing to start this far back because track position

is so crucial on those road courses," said Sadler. "We're going to meet

tonight with the team to see if we can try to pull a rabbit out of our

hat, strategy-wise, in order to make something happen."

As for the Quebec drivers, Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond qualified 12th

while Patrick Carpentier of Joliette, who scored the pole here in 2007 and

came out of retirement for this one race in order to raise funds for the

St. Justine's Children Hospital Foundation, had to settle for 13th.

Louis-Philippe Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres qualified 35th while Dexter Stacey and Derek White, both from Kahnawake had to settle for 38th and 42nd. Ryan Ellis was the only driver who failed to qualify.

Notes: In the NASCAR Canadian Tire series, J.R. Fitzpatrick nabbed the pole position for the Autopro 100 which will be run Saturday morning with a lap of 1:44.681. Fitzpatrick, who won this race in 2009, bested local

favorite Andrew Ranger by a mere 0.108 seconds. Championship leader D.J. Kennington qualified third. NASCAR Nationwide series regular Austin Dillon will take his first NASCAR Canadian Tire Series start from the ninth spot. . . . Tagliani will run the Montreal 200 in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series in two different cars, a pair of Ford/Rileys for Starworks Motorsports. "Every time I asked a Grand-Am team to run the Rolex 24 in Daytona, they'd say no, arguing that I hadn't turned any laps in a Daytona Prototype car. They won't have that argument any more!" Tagliani qualified 3rd in the No. 8 Ford/Riley which he will hand off to Ryan Dalziel after 30 minutes at the wheel Saturday. He will then take over for Alex Popow in the No. 2 Soloson Ford Riley.