Carpentier hopes Montreal the start of a second career (cont'd)

It seemed too good to be a coincidence, the driver from just outside Montreal being called upon the same day the owner of the Montreal hockey franchise bought into the Evernham race team. But it was. According to a team representative, CEO Ray Evernham still maintains control of the organization's competitive aspects. Desrosiers' negotiations were with team president Russell and competition director Johns, not with Gillett.

"He was very happy to see Patrick again, but I cannot say that he had any say in it," Desrosiers said. "I don't think it would have hurt, but I think it basically came from the people at Evernham who decided who put a road racer in the car at The Glen."

For Carpentier, Gillett's involvement is an added bonus.

"Maybe things happen for a reason," he said. "So hopefully, it will keep going. But for me, it's the same thing. I don't really look too far, but I want to do a good job this weekend. I'll focus on that and drive the car like I did in Montreal. I had such a good time, and I'm a believer in if you have fun and enjoy what you do and have fun at the wheel, it always turns out to the best. That's all we'll do this weekend."

He's been learning on the fly. Carpentier's experience in full-bodied, NASCAR-style stock cars is limited to a brief stint in a Canadian series, a test for the Fitz team on a road course in Kershaw, S.C., and Saturday's race in Montreal. He wanted to make his debut on an oval, but former driver and NASCAR official Brett Bodine convinced him to begin where he could make the strongest mark. For the Montreal race, the Fitz team gave Carpentier a primer on everything from pit lane to restarts to communication. He broke a gearbox from shifting too early, a casualty of the learning curve.

Friday's practice at Watkins Glen will mark his first laps in a Nextel Cup car. By now he was supposed to be semi-retired, living and working on a real-estate career in Las Vegas, dabbling in a little sports-car racing on the side. Then came Montreal. Next is Watkins Glen. Fitz has promised to put him in a car for a Busch race on an oval track, although exactly which one hasn't yet been determined.

"He wants to go and drive on ovals. Patrick knows road courses, but most of the experience in his career was on oval tracks. He loves ovals, and that's what he wants to do," Desrosiers said.

"What we would like is to be able to get with a really good team next year and do a full season in Busch. That would be exceptional. We'd be really happy to do that, and maybe to do a partial schedule in Cup also, then the following year do a full season in Cup. That would be the ideal solution. Is it going to happen? I don't know."

But the prospects are suddenly more realistic than they were just six days ago. And selling real estate in the Nevada desert doesn't seem as fulfilling as it once appeared.

"At one point I was kind of like, that's kind of like semi-retirement, I'll do the Rolex and that's it," Carpentier said. "Then this Montreal deal came, and we had this result in Montreal. Believe me, I'm not going to say no to anything that comes back, especially with great teams like Armando Fitz, Fitz Motorsports, and Evernham Motorsports. I'm never going to refuse that. It doesn't matter if I'm retired, semi-retired, and if I have to run there to do it, I will. I am looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be a second start of a different career."