Montreal race should be appreciated for what it is (cont'd)

Likely, no. You also likely wouldn't have seen three Canadians finish in the top 11, as they did this year, or three in the top seven as happened in 2009. No question, Canadian race fans want to see Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart tangle. But from the beginning, the presence of so many Canadian drivers -- good Canadian drivers in equipment capable of contending -- has helped bring an energy and an enthusiasm to the Montreal event that not even a Cup race may be able to match. As it is, Montreal seems the perfect combination of people and place. That it's a Nationwide event, technically a step below NASCAR's premier series, hardly seems to matter.

Now, that's not to say NASCAR doesn't need to look long and hard at Canada as a future site for potential schedule realignment, but those are murky waters. International Speedway Corp. owns the company that promotes races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is in a municipal park and owned by the city of Montreal. ISC currently has an agreement with the city to promote motorsports events at the track through 2012, and with Montreal's approval could technically include Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as part of a Cup schedule shakeup at some point. But right now, there are no indications that such a move is even being considered. ISC and NASCAR seem perfectly happy with Montreal as host to a standalone Nationwide event, and given the success of the race it's easy to see why.

So Canada's hopes for a potential Cup race will have to wait, perhaps until that proposed 1-mile oval designed partly by Gordon rises out of the ground near Fort Erie, Ont., a town across the border from Buffalo. But that facility comes with no guarantees -- even if it gets built, the track's ownership consortium will exist outside of the ISC/Speedway Motorsports Inc. power structure, and could very well face the same frustrations former Kentucky Speedway owner Jerry Carroll suffered in trying to bring a Cup event to the Bluegrass State. That didn't happen until he sold to SMI chairman Bruton Smith, who shifted a long-awaited date from one of his other tracks.

So anyone holding their breath in anticipation of a Canadian Cup date may turn blue in the face long before it becomes reality. Does Canada deserve it? Unquestionably, given the level of support shown by Canadian fans in Montreal, Michigan, Watkins Glen, and elsewhere. A return of NASCAR's premier series to Canada would surely be a proud moment, especially for those who understand the motorsports heritage that exists in Ontario and Quebec. But the one big oval capable of hosting such a thing currently exists only on an architect's desk. Montreal is a Nationwide race -- and a Nationwide race only -- now and for the foreseeable future.

And that's not a bad thing. Montreal is a race that has the NASCAR spotlight unto itself, an event with a cosmopolitan backdrop that attracts an eclectic mixture of Canadian drivers, road-course specialists, and moonlighting Cup regulars. With singing and flag-waving and strong crowds, it's as jubilant as a NASCAR event gets, regardless of the series, and it deserves to be enjoyed for what it is rather than what it is not. So it's not a Cup event. In those final laps Sunday, when Said and Papis and Villeneuve took your breath away, did anyone really seem to mind?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.