The estimated crowd was more than 70,000, the largest ever to see a Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The weather in Montreal was nothing short of magnifique. The finish -- with Max Papis and eventual winner Boris Said trading the lead during the final two laps, and local hero Jacques Villeneuve right behind -- ranks right up there with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Daytona 500 charge at Jamie McMurray among the most thrilling in any NASCAR national-series event this season.

Yes, it took a while to get there, with seven cautions and a 13-minute red flag slowing the proceedings on a long road course where a single lap under yellow can feel like a commute to Ottawa and back. But the enduring images of last week's Montreal event will be the same as they've been in the previous three years of the race -- another tremendous crowd, another tremendous finish, and another tremendous day for NASCAR in Canada. This is no novelty, not anymore. From the participation of so many Canadian drivers to the passion of so many Canadian race fans, there's just something about this race that works.

Local heroes like [Jacques] Villeneuve or Andrew Ranger would be in lower-flight cars, if they could score rides for the event at all.

Which makes you wonder why there seems such a rush to mess with it. Now that it's quite evident the Montreal Nationwide event is a hit, there are no shortage of fans or media members ready to find a place on the Cup Series schedule for Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. And one day, that may very well happen. No question, Canada has proven itself as a NASCAR nation, both in the overwhelmingly positive response to the Montreal race and how fans from north of the border routinely travel to Cup events in the United States. As mentioned in this very space last week, Canada continues to bolster the argument that somewhere, at some time, it deserves a place in the sport's premier series.

But is that place Montreal? Let's face it, the fact that Sunday's event was a Nationwide race and not a Cup stop didn't seem to deter a record crowd from turning out. Yes, the big show would bring out Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt, and all the other stars who rarely if ever moonlight on the Nationwide tour. But it would almost certainly come with a trade-off, in the form of fewer Canadian drivers in the field. As with every Cup road course event, the regulars are so good now there's no need to turn their vehicles over to specialists. That means local heroes like Villeneuve or Andrew Ranger would be in lower-flight cars, if they could score rides for the event at all.

Don't underestimate how important the presence of Canadian drivers is to the race in Montreal, where every year the field is dotted with competitors who give the event a provincial flair. Villeneuve, a native of a town near Montreal whose late father is the track's namesake, energizes the event by his very presence, and surely thrilled Canadian fans Sunday by being a threat to win. Had that been a Cup race, would Villeneuve have been in a car good enough to crack the top 10? Ranger's third-place run last year impressed even winner Carl Edwards. Would he have been in a car capable of such a thing had the race been a Cup event? (Continued)