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The Nationwide Series Comes To Road America

For the first time in its history, the NASCAR Nationwide Series cars took to the four-mile road course at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.

As it is the first time the Nationwide Series has been at the track, the cars and drivers were given an additional test day before the race.

In the three-hour morning practice session, Paul Menard was the fastest of the 35 cars that took to the track, with a speed of 106.721 mph.

Menard has previously been on the track in a stock car, winning a race here in 2001 in the now defunct NASCAR Midwest Series.

Menard, along with Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards, are doing double duty this weekend. Tomorrow, the trio will be at Infineon Speedway, Sonoma Calif., for practice and qualifying for the Toyota/Save Mart 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday.

All three will have other drivers practicing and doing race set-up for them on Friday. Michel Jourdain, Jr. will be practicing for Paul Menard, Parker Klingerman will stand in for Brad Keselowski and Erik Darnell will set the car up for Carl Edwards.

The three drivers will return to race on Saturday, passing up a full day of practice at Infineon Speedway, and will return to California for the Sprint Cup race on Sunday.

All three had high praise for the Road America facility.

“It’s my favorite track in the country,” Menard said. “My dad would bring me here as a kid,” the Eau Claire native added.

Keselowski, the current series point leader, also discussed the track. “Road America is a technical facility. Combine that with the speed of the track and it should be a great show,” he said.

“This is a beautiful place. It’s always fun for me to drive a new track. Road America is a neat challenge. I’m a little self-conscious going through the corners, especially the carousel and the kink,” Edwards said after the morning practice session.

Evidently, Edwards lost his self-consciousness rapidly, as he was fastest in the two and one-half hour afternoon session, with a speed of 107.177 mph.

Edwards and Menard were the only two drivers to eclipse Menard’s fast speed in the morning session. Menard was second quickest in the afternoon session at 107.035 mph.

In the afternoon practice session, 38 cars out of the 43 entered took to the track for practice.

There were a few incidents of cars going off track and a few spins, including one by Keselowski in Turn 13. Keselowski and Patrick Long were both going for the same place on the track when they touched and both spun. Neither car suffered serious damage and both continued around the track to the pits.



















An incident between Brad Keselowski (#22) and Patrick Long (#90) in Turn 13 of Road America during NASCAR Nationwide Series practice on Thursday. [Russ Lake Photo]

Another busy day at the track is on tap for Friday. In addition to more NASCAR Nationwide Series practice, cars from the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Series and the Trans-Am Series will be on the track.

Both series and the Mid-American stock cars are scheduled to race on Sunday, June 20.

Fastest speeds of the day were: Edwards, 107.177 mph. (Session 2); Menard, 107.035 mph. (Session 2); Menard, 106.721 mph. (Session 1); Brad Coleman, 106.568 mph. (Session 2); Colin Braun, 106.442 mph. (Session 2); Jacques Villenueve, 106.344 mph. (Session 2); Brendan Gaughan, 106.250 mph. (Session 2); Owen Kelly, 106.197 mph (Session 1); Coleman, 106.111 mph. (Session 1); Patrick Long, 106.067 mph. (Session 1).

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