Mosport: Series race notes

Ranger Dominating In Dickies 200 Win

BOWMANVILLE, Ont. -- Andrew Ranger won the Dickies in dominating fashion in NASCAR Canadian Tire Series action at Mosport International Raceway.

Ranger (No. 27 Wal-Mart/Tide Ford), out of Roxton Pond, Que., took the lead from Anthony Simone (No. 95 Crown Modular/United Lumber Chevrolet) on Lap 39 and ran away from the field. Ranger beat Simone to the finish line by 6.678, the largest margin of victory in series history.

Ranger dominated the early portions of the race, opening up a lead as much as five seconds over DJ Kennington (No. 17 Castrol/Mahindra Tractor Dodge). However, Ranger lost several positions, when the field began making green-flag pit stops, due to a sub-par stop.

"The car was just awesome all weekend," said Ranger. "The pit stop was a little slow and we got behind a little, but we were able to make up the time."

All told for the weekend, Ranger led both practice sessions, qualified on the pole and led 31 of the 51 laps of the race en route to his second career victory at Mosport International Raceway. It was his fourth series career victory.

Second-place Simone earned his first series podium finish. Racing out of Holland Landing, Ont., Simone is off to a solid start in his sophomore season after being the runner-up in rookie-of-the-year honors a year ago.

Third-place finisher JR Fitzpatrick (No. 84 Fitzpatrick Motorsports Chevrolet) came all the way from the back of the field in 2009 series debut. He was forced to start from the rear due to taking over the controls of the car from Jim Lapcevich, who practiced and qualified the car yesterday. Fitzpatrick was at Michigan International Speedway where he competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Kennington finished in fourth followed by Ron Beauchamp Jr. (No.60 Mopar/Mobil 1/Exide Dodge) in fifth.

Robin Buck, Jeff Lapcevich, Jason Hathaway, Howie Scannell Jr. and Mark Dilley rounded out the top 10.

In the race's fourth lap, rookie driver Joey Hanssen (No. 40 Prime Champ Dodge) made hard contact with the tire wall in Turn 8. He was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

Unofficially in the championship point standings after three races, Beauchamp holds a slim eight-point advantage over Ranger. Kennington is in third, 35 points off Beauchamp's pace.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series takes a few weekends off before hitting the track again on July 11 at Autodrome St. Eustache (Que.) for the Tide 250.

-credit: nascar