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Max Papis finished third, Canadian Ron Fellows was fourth and Stephen Leicht rounded out the top five. Ambrose, who should have won, wound up seventh but didn’t complain.
“I knew that he was going to try and hit me, and we were talking whether we should pull over and let him pass,” the Australian said. “But, you know, I’ve got two laps to go and I’m trying to win the race. If somebody is going to take me out, they’re going to take me out. I’m disappointed. I promised myself that I wouldn’t get mad.”
The wild ending capped a brilliant weekend for NASCAR and Stock Car Montreal in their first partnership. A crowd of 68,150 began packing the grandstands hours before the race, and event organizers said the walk-up crowd was the best the circuit has ever drawn.
Although the annual Formula One event draws upward of 100,000 fans, organizers were ecstatic with their two-day total of 129,473 because no one was certain how the open-wheel crazed nation would accept the full-bodied stock cars.
“This has been better than we could have dreamed for,” general manager Martin Spalding said.
NASCAR chairman Brian France agreed, as he and top series officials spent Saturday mingling and marveling over the reception.
“They have run big events here before, so we expected it to be an organized, well-done affair,” France said. “And it has been.”
This is NASCAR’s second international trip — the Busch Series has raced in Mexico City since 2005 — as France tries to promote the brand on foreign soil. It helped tremendously that Carpentier and Fellows, two fan favorites, were in contention for the win and the crowd roared with approval every time they passed by.
“I could tell it was (Carpentier) behind me because the grandstands were waving everything they had at him,” Harvick said. “I knew it wasn’t for me.”
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