If you thought Nelson Piquet, Jr. winning the Coors Light Pole on Saturday was big news for the Turner Motorsports driver, just imagine his emotions after winning the Sargento 200 later in the day at Road America. In only his third appearance in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Piquet cruised to victory at the 4 mile, 14 turn road course.
Piquet became the first Brazilian and only the fifth driver to be born outside of the United States to win a major NASCAR event, after having previously won a race in the regional K&N Pro Series East Series in March at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“The car was great,” he said after claiming the checkered flag at the end of two and a half hours of tough and physical road course racing. “I just had to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes.”
With the win, Piquet definitely proves to NASCAR fans that he belongs in this sport.
“I’m going to be here for a long time, hopefully,” Piquet said.
While it was Michael McDowell, who looked to have the best car in the opening laps of the race, that would finish second, he may be remembered as the guy who spun out Jacques Villenueve. Speaking of Villenueve, on the last lap, he collided with Danica Patrick causing her car to spin out. He would finish sixth while Patrick would finish 12th.
While I have been very vocal on my displeasure of Patrick being in this sport, she definitely had a great car all day and for a while looked like she may win the Sargento 200.
After the race, Villenueve would have words with a member of Patrick’s crew on pit road.
This weekend’s race was also the return of Eric McClure, who has been sidelined since his horrific crash at Talladega in early May which his No. 14 car suffered an extremely violent head-on impact with the inside SAFER barrier. While McClure is not a road course specialist, he remained fairly anonymous all afternoon to finish 21st. “For me, coming back, I’m not scared of the race car. I think they’re as safe as they’ve ever been, and I think I proved it,” he insisted.
And Kurt Busch, the lone Sprint Cup Series Veteran to make the trip to Elkhart, Wisconsin for the weekend, finished eighth.
Look for more Sprint Cup Series drivers back in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next weekend as the series heads to Kentucky Speedway for a Friday night shootout.
Unofficial Race Results:
1 30 Nelson Piquet Jr.
2 18 Michael McDowell
3 5 Ron Fellows (MY RACE PICK)
4 33 Max Papis
5 12 Sam Hornish Jr.
6 22 Jacques Villeneuve
7 11 Brian Scott
8 54 Kurt Busch
9 88 Cole Whitt *
10 31 Justin Allgaier
11 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12 7 Danica Patrick
13 44 Mike Bliss
14 81 Jason Bowles *
15 2 Elliott Sadler
16 75 Kenny Habul
17 99 Victor Gonzalez Jr.
18 3 Austin Dillon *
19 1 Mike Wallace
20 38 Brad Sweet *
21 14 Eric McClure
22 41 Timmy Hill
23 40 Erik Darnell
24 70 Tony Raines
25 51 Jeremy Clements
26 43 Michael Annett
27 23 Bill Prietzel
28 26 John Young
29 32 Miguel Paludo
30 19 Tayler Malsam
31 39 Josh Richards
32 24 Casey Roderick *
33 87 Alex Kennedy
34 4 Matthew Bell
35 59 Kyle Kelley
36 89 Morgan Shepherd
37 50 T.J. Bell
38 8 Matt Frahm
39 52 Ryan Ellis
40 46 Chase Miller
41 47 Matt DiBenedetto
42 42 Tim Schendel
43 10 Jeff Green
