After finishing 26th in the first race of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Noel Dowler came home with a better finish at Circuit ICAR despite minimal practice due to rain. The Sherwood Park, Alberta driver came home 18th despite running in the top 10 for much of the afternoon.
“It’s really disappointing to have that kind of issue bite us,” Dowler says. “The car felt absolutely fantastic and it was exciting to be up racing near the front of the field. I know we’ll be back and have better results at the next race.”
Qualifying was rained out, therefore landing Dowler a tenth place starting spot on the grid based on last year’s owners points. When the race started, the track was dry so Dowler decided to take it easy and dropped some positions.
“Not having much practice and in very different conditions I just wanted to take it easy at the beginning of the race,” Dowler says. “Some of the guys were pretty aggressive right from the start of the race. I didn’t want to get too assertive right away.”
After relaxing for a bit, Dowler began to work his way through the field and cracked the top 10 of the running order.
“It was great to really be able to show what we’re capable of,” he says. “I still wasn’t pushing the car too hard knowing we had a long way to go.”
Dowler would run in the top 10 till he stalled under a late race caution period. He would get a push start from a wrecker and catch up to the back of the field, pushing hard as he could to finish 18th.
