NASCAR To Stay In Montreal, Reportedly Will Add Cup Race In '10

Montreal Will Keep Nationwide Series  Race For Next Three Years

NASCAR yesterday announced it will "renew its agreement to hold races in Montreal for the next three years," according to Sarah Millar of the Montreal GAZETTE. The Nationwide Series NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will again be held this year, while the track the following two years will "also host the higher-level Sprint Cup series" (Montreal GAZETTE, 3/3). The CP reported Stock Car Montreal (SCM) "signed a three-year lease with the city-owned Jean-Drapeau Park to stage races" at the track. SCM Exec VP Francois Dumontier said the track "should get more top drivers" for the Nationwide event "and overall, it should be a bigger event." Demontier: "NASCAR responded to our request for a stand-alone weekend." The fate of the race had been "up in the air after the city lost its popular F1 race in October and promoter Normand Legault announced he was pulling out of the business." Demontier said that the previous lease for the track "was with Legault and it became invalid when he pulled out, so a new agreement had to be negotiated" (CP, 3/2).

NOT SO FAST: NASCAR today issued a statement that read, "There are currently no plans for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to run in Montreal, and NASCAR has not received a realignment proposal from ISC to do so" (THE DAILY).