Hamlin has climbed to eighth in series points after a solid recent stretch.

Rookies north

of the border

The top two drivers in the Nationwide Series standings will be rookies again in Montreal Saturday.

Clint Bowyer skipped last year’s event at the road course. Brad Keselowski was with the JR Motorsports team but was replaced by Andy Pilgrim for this race a year ago.

Bowyer leads Keselowski by 173 points in the standings.

Adios, amigos

In the same week it’s going to Canada, NASCAR announced this week the Nationwide Series won’t be returning to Mexico City next year.

The series had run the past four years on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course.

“Though the years, we’ve gone to different paces and moved on,” NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said in a Tuesday teleconference. “We’ve gone to Australia, we’ve gone to Japan, we’ve gone to Mexico. And Mexico, I don’t think we’ve ever said we would be there permanently.”

Christian Potts

366-3531

cpotts@normantranscript.com