By: Ashley McCubbin

TORONTO, Ontario — There’s something special about Alex Tagliani and the streets of Toronto. After all, his victory in the Tiffany Gate Grand Prix on Friday marked his third in six appearances at Exhibition Place.

“I love the track,” he told the media after the race. “I love the street courses. Obviously, I have a lot of experience with road racing as I come from road racing and I’ve driven this track many times in IndyCar.”

Tagliani was fast throughout the day, as evident by winning the pole for the 35-lap event. It initially appeared it would be a straight trip to victory lane with him finding his rhythm early, but that wasn’t the case. Andrew Ranger was able to cut into the gap the No. 18 built over hte field when he came up on “a back-marker at the wrong place.”

“I pushed three laps again just to get a gap because I don’t like when people are too close to my rear bumper,” he recalled. “I pushed really hard and stabilized myself again. Then we had that restart, and I don’t know why but we basically restarted and then got to turn one, braked in, I was in the lead, turn three, I was four car lead – and then yellow flag comes out off of turn five and they positioned Andrew in front of me. So really I don’t know. When the yellow came out, we were five car (lengths) in the lead so I have to have some explanation there.

“Then obviously we started on the outside so I really out-braked everybody on the outside of one and cut behind Andrew. Then I started dive on the inside of three, but he shut the door. Then right at the exit of turn four, I just launched going into turn five, and just took the lead there and we never lost it.”

Although nobody was able to find their way by Tagliani, it was not without another challenge, thanks to another lap-car causing him to lose ground. He came up on the back of Glenn Styres, making slight contact as he tried to get around him.

“Obviously the 10-car length went back to zero, so I pushed to get another gap,” he explained. “Then there was another incident going back to the straightaway towards the end of the race, I think one lap to go, and there was a car that hit the wall and a tire going like this and the car was moving like this on the straightaway. I was very worried about arriving full speed and trying to pass him and that car loses that tire that’s basically flapping.

“So I lifted, but Kevin (Lacroix) was flat out so I saw the gap coming in. When I hit the brake, I got some rear lock-up and I almost hit the wall in turn three. So I went really wide and Kevin closed the gap again. So over the last lap, I just pushed like a qualifier and I said I can’t leave Kevin close to me and get the chance to use the bumper.”

Despite the challenges throughout the distance, Tagliani led all 35 laps in route to the victory, something he attributed not only to his own ability as a driver, but the team as a whole.

“I think in these days in NASCAR, you can’t take credit,” he commented. “You need a car, you need a team. It’s so competitive that on a weekend when you don’t have all the pieces of puzzle even if you’re very comfortable and even if you’re good, it’s too tight – you need everything. Today, we had everything.”

It marked a solid change in pace for Tagliani this season as the year has not started off as strongly as envisioned as after crashing out at Sunset Speedway, he scored a pair of sixths and a seventh.

“We had issues at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) and the team worked extremely hard after Mosport,” he revealed. “There was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of phone calls, and a lot of testing. We went to test at ICAR prior to this race, and we found some things, and the car seemed good in practice, qualifying, and the race. We had everything. Today, when the stars aligned and the car is there, and I’m at my best, we’re tough to beat.”

It is why despite sitting sixth in standings, 38 points behind Treyten Lapcevich for the points lead, there is a lot of confidence going into the western swing.

“We started to be confident in Newfoundland,” he explained. “I think we had a really top-three car there and were running fourth at the end. There was a red-flag and our car was not as good on restarts on cold tires; it was good on the long run, and that restart, we played the price and lost a few positions. I think the car there was the best car we’ve had on the ovals and I think we found something to, and we found where we were lacking on the other ovals. This race, with the way we were in Newfoundland, and now going to Edmonton, a place where we won before and got on the pole there, and won at Saskatoon last year, we just have to put it together.

“I think if we can start winning races, the championship is not over by any means. It’s just starting….”