NASCAR Canada

Edmonton: Race notes

Tagliani Takes The Checkers In Edmonton Edmonton, Alberta -- Alex Tagliani picked up his first NASCAR win in just his eighth start in a stock car. He won the Edmonton Canadian Tire Series 100 at Rexall Speedway in convincing fashion by beating ...

Edited: Jul 26, 2008, 11:17 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Tagliani Takes The Checkers In Edmonton

Edmonton, Alberta -- Alex Tagliani picked up his first NASCAR win in just his eighth start in a stock car. He won the Edmonton Canadian Tire Series 100 at Rexall Speedway in convincing fashion by beating runner-up Scott Steckly to the line by 1.404 seconds.

Tagliani (No. 7 Wal-Mart/Ubisoft Ford), a Quebec native, made a pair of starts last season in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Sirius Satellite Radio, but is racing full-time this season after making the move from the open-wheel racing world.

Even though he beat current points leader Steckly (No. 22 Tow Truck in a Box/Diamond International Dodge) to the finish line by over a second, Tagliani still had to endure strong charges from both Steckly and teammate Andrew Ranger (No. 27 Wal-Mart/Tide Ford) at various times.

"Wow! What a thrill this is," said Tagliani. "We've had some problems this year with the equipment, but all the credit goes to the crew. They gave me a great car and all I had to do was drive."

Much more experienced in stock car racing, Steckly threw as many tricks as he could at Tagliani both on re-starts and on the 14-turn, 1.973-mile temporary road course located on the grounds of the Edmonton City Centre Airport.

"(Steckly) certainly made it difficult all over the track," Tagliani said. "His car has so much power this year and he was a handful, but once (Ranger) started putting pressure on him, I was able to drive away a little. He drove me clean, though, and I appreciate that."

"I tried everything I could," Steckly said. "He definitely had the best car today."

Steckly has finished in the top five every time out this season and continues his torrid pace in 2008. So far this season, he has three wins, a pair of seconds and a fourth-place finish.

"We really can't be disappointed with the finish today. I certainly would have liked to have won, but it was a good points day for us."

For the second straight year Ranger started from the pole, but he again was not able to collect the win. However, with three road course events in the next four weeks, the accomplished road racer knows he can make some gains in the standings.

"I think we can make a move at this point in the season, but (Steckly) has been so good that it will not be easy to get back into the championship race."

J.R. Fitzpatrick (No. 84 Fitzpatrick Motorsports Chevrolet) and D.J. Kennington (Castrol/Haldex Dodge) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Don Thomson Jr., Jason Hathaway, Kerry Micks, Mark Dilley and Dave Whitlock rounded out the top 10.

Ranger and Tagliani started side-by-side on the front row. Ranger led the first lap, but Tagliani completed a pass for the lead between Turns 10 and 11 heading into the Rexall hairpin. It was a lead that he would not surrender the rest of the way.

The race had just two leaders, Ranger and Tagliani, and was slowed by caution three times for just eight laps.

Unofficially, in the championship point standings, Steckly stretched out his lead over Thomson to 131 points. Kennington holds third place followed by Ranger and Fitzpatrick.

The Canadian Tire Series makes the cross-country trip this week and will be at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the NAPA 100 joining the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the huge NASCAR weekend in Quebec. A season ago, Kerry Micks (No. 02 Beyond Digital Imaging Ford) made a thrilling last lap pass of Ranger for the victory.

-credit: nascar

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Rally Finland: Munchi's Ford preview

Next article Edmonton: Rahal Letterman Racing race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Kimi Antonelli leading

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Kimi Antonelli leading

Charles Leclerc reacts to Ferrari fear: 'We know what line not to cross'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

Charles Leclerc reacts to Ferrari fear: 'We know what line not to cross'

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's wildest and most impressive Talladega moments

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

4 h

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's wildest and most impressive Talladega moments

Lamborghini World Finals PRO-PRO/AM Race 2: Leitch/Stasi dominate to seal title

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

4 h

Lamborghini World Finals PRO-PRO/AM Race 2: Leitch/Stasi dominate to seal title

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts