Montreal debut weaves racing history with future

On Saturday, the 2.709-mile track located on the man-made Ile Notre-Dame will feel the rumble of a machine that's never competed on its surface, a machine weighing 3,400 pounds with sheet metal fenders and decaled rooftops. Saturday is another notch in Canada's racing history, another accomplishment for a place bearing the V for a beloved hero, the late Gilles Villeneuve. And it's a sign of growth for America's most popular form of racing.

Bienvenue au Montreal, NASCAR. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is glad to have ya.

"It is entirely appropriate that NASCAR's first race to be held on a racetrack named after Canada's most famous and likely most gifted racing driver this country has ever produced," said Canadian-born driver Ron Fellows.

Home-track edge

Canadian-born driver Patrick Carpentier was very cautious when he hit the Montreal track for the first time in a stock car.

• Complete story, click here
• Eight Canadian drivers racing
• By the Numbers: Montreal

He's one of 15 drivers entered in Saturday's NAPA Auto Parts 200 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2) who were born outside of the United States. Eight of those are Canadians.

But only Fellows has won on a road course in NASCAR, and he's done it three times. And Fellows has won at the Montreal road course before, having notched victories there in 1988 and 1989 while driving Camaros and Firebirds in the Player's GM Series.

"It has been a long time since I raced there," Fellows said, "but hopefully I will remember everything when I get back out there."

He did. He was fourth in the opening three-hour practice session Thursday and led the afternoon session driving Kevin Harvick Inc.'s No. 33 Chevrolet.

In fact the practice sheet had a familiar tone to it in that non-Busch regulars struggled to crack the top 10 on the charts. It's just that this time, there weren't Cup drivers ahead of them.

Seven of the top 10 drivers in the morning session were road-course specialists, led by Canada-native Patrick Carpentier, who will also be running in Friday's Grand-am Rolex Series. The second session was much the same with Fellows leading and Carpentier fifth. The only duplicates who were not specialists were Robby Gordon and Marcos Ambrose, both of whom have extensive experience turning right.

But by all looks of it, they may have to run down the new guys to have a shot.

That's a tough task. A majority of drivers made their first laps around the track in Thursday's extended practice sessions. A handful of others have practiced from their own couch.

"I have been preparing for this race by playing the video game, which is a pretty accurate depiction of the track," said last week's winner Jason Leffler. "It helps to be able to visualize the racetrack and know what to expect as you come out of each turn at a road course."

Leffler, however, couldn't use the electronic experience to keep him off the wall as he totaled his primary car in Thursday's afternoon practice session.

"This is a track that many of the drivers are going to be seeing for the first time so it's tough to predict," said road-racing ace Boris Said.

It's things like that which give the Canadian ringers an edge -- but for how long?

"This advantage shouldn't last forever as my opponents are talented professionals and they won't take too much time to figure out the track," Carpentier said. "The competition will be tough, but I do believe that I will be competitive and that the team and I will quickly adjust the car to my liking."

That's not a tough task. The car Carpentier is driving on Saturday is the same No. 22 Dodge that Carlos Contreras placed on the outside pole at the Mexico City race.

"Although we did not get much testing in, it didn't take Patrick long to get comfortable with the car," said crew chief Paul Wolfe. "He knows the track really well so I think we should have a great chance to finish in the top five."

Carpentier knows the track because, like his fellow countrymen, he knows history. As much of a historic milestone the race is to NASCAR and the Busch Series, it's much the same to those who will fire the engines on Saturday.

"Having watched and idolized Gilles," Fellows said of his country's beloved driver, "there was always a little extra adrenaline flowing when driving on that circuit."