Busch drivers impressed with Montreal, but cautious (cont'd)

Kevin Harvick said Montreal may be most similar to Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with its lack of elevation changes and long straightaway. Still, track position will be paramount.

"I'd say there's going to be a lot of problems Saturday," said Harvick, 11th-quickest in the morning. "It's not going to be the racetrack's fault, though. It's just a new place for everybody and it's got a lot of braking zones.

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The entry list for Montreal gives the Busch Series international flavor for Saturday's race.

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"The mounds behind the curbs are really tall, so that's something that if you're inside of somebody, you've got to give the position one way or the other because you're not going through there two-wide."

For rookie Brad Coleman, coming to Montreal is a thrill, having watched Formula One stars tackle this difficult course in the past. He put in seven laps Thursday morning, winding up 21st.

"It's a pretty basic racetrack, all chicanes and a hairpin," Coleman said. "Basically you sacrifice the first one to get a better run on the second part of the corner. The guy who gets a better run off the corner's going to win the race."

The key to a good day on Saturday, for Coleman, will be a good qualifying run.

"It's going to be tough to pass here," Coleman said. "I saw one or two [zones], maybe. I'm sure guys will try to pass in other places but then there are going to be wrecks everywhere. There are walls coming out of the corners, like right there, and there's no room for error. It's going to be a tough place to pass, so qualifying's going to be a battle.

"It's perfectly flat and there's a couple of blind corners to where you can't see around it because there's cement walls blocking your view, and bridges and trees and all that. You basically go around there, trusting the flagworkers."

Carpentier, who is making his Busch Series debut this weekend, learned a couple of lessons the hard way on Thursday. First, he had the team add several more mirrors, including one "that's like an RV mirror" on the left side of the car. Second, he learned that rubbin' truly is racin'.

"I had a little incident with [Richard Johns]," Carpentier said. "He slowed down into one of the esses and I thought he was coming into the pits and I couldn't stop, so I hit him. So I damaged the bodywork on the front of the car but they told me, 'Welcome to NASCAR.'"