Canucks race at Montreal

MONTREAL -- The NASCAR Busch Series' first foray into Canada will have plenty of homegrown flavour, including veteran John Graham.

The 51-year-old who has raced nearly every sort of car on every type of circuit leads a group of eight Canadians entered in the NAPA Auto Parts 200 this weekend at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit.

Canadians Ron Fellows, Patrick Carpentier, Trevor Boys, Michael Valiente, J.R. Fitzpatrick, D.J. Kennington and Mike McKenzie will also be battling with top NASCAR stars like Americans Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon on the 4.361-km road course in the race on Saturday (TSN, 2:30 p.m.).

Graham has a deal with Canadian company Fun Energy Foods to do 10 Busch Series events this season, beginning with Montreal, where he will race the No. 10 Kickbutt Amped Energy Ballz Toyota Camry for Braun Racing, replacing Dave Blaney.

"I'm anxious as hell," the Toronto driver said yesterday. "It's been a long time putting this together. 

"Racing on a circuit that is a spotlight for Canadians is nerve-wracking, but it will be spectacular."

The Busch Series, one step below the NASCAR Nextel Cup series but with many of the same drivers, makes it's Canadian debut on the track known mainly as home of the hugely successful Canadian Grand Prix Formula One race.

The stock car series made its first move outside the United States to Mexico in 2005 and now has branched into Canada, where a large crowd is expected, although organizers have given no details of ticket sales.

'SOMETHING NEW'

With a Nextel Cup race on Sunday at Pocono in Pennsylvania, many teams looked for Canadians or experienced road course racers -- or both -- to fill in at Gilles Villeneuve Circuit.

Graham has raced open-wheel Indy cars, competed nine times at the Le Mans 24 Hour event, winning his class in 2000, and even did a gruelling Paris/Dakar Rally across the Sahara in his 21-year career. He also entered four Busch races in 2004.

That came after his career as a pro hockey player with Malmo and Jonkoping in Sweden was cut short by a battle with Hodgkin's disease.

"I probably wasn't very good anyway," he said. "I've had a pretty good career racing, winning at Le Mans and everything, and it was a good opportunity to move onto something new."

His hockey connections remain strong. One of the former forward's sponsors is the New York Islanders.

This week, his experience in road racing and having competed at Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in support races to F1 in the 1990s should come in handy, but he won't be alone.

Fellows, who has three career Busch Series wins, is an ace at driving stock cars on road routes and the Mississauga, Ont., driver will be among the favourites working for Harvick's well-funded team.

Vancouver's Valiente, a former open-wheeler now on the Grand Am Series, is another threat filling in for former F1 ace Juan Pablo Montoya on the powerful Gnassi team.

Another Grand Am driver, Joliette, Que., native Carpentier, won a Formula Atlantic race and competed in Champ Cars in Montreal and could be dangerous driving a Dodge for Fitz Motorsports.

For both Carpentier and Valiente it will be a first Busch race.

Boys, 49, of Calgary, a former NASCAR truck racer, will be in his second Busch race this year, as will Cambridge, Ont.'s Fitzpatrick, who is second in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, where he is coming off back-to-back wins.

Fourth in that series is Kennington, of St. Thomas, Ont., who enters his fourth Busch race and third this year.

Also in the field is Dartmouth, N.S.'s McKenzie, driving a Forbes Chevrolet.

Surprisingly not in the field are Canadian Tire leader Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., Champ Car veteran Paul Tracy, who was kept out by a sponsorship conflict, and former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who has yet to secure a ride in NASCAR.

The 750-horsepower Busch cars are slightly smaller than the 850-horsepower Nextel Cup machines, but are much heavier than the open-wheel cars some of the imported road racers are more used to.

"In (open wheel) road races, you've got 20 cars and there's lots of room, but in NASCAR, there's 43 cars and you all bunch up," said Graham, adding that open wheel racers will also have to deal with the much greater weight of stock cars.

Edwards, who holds a commanding lead in the Busch Series and is sixth in Nextel Cup standings, isn't put off by the influx of road racers, including Italian Max Papis and Briton Andy Pilgrim.

"I feel like road racing is a speciality," Edwards said on a conference call. "There are guys who are really good at it, but I'd say that people with experience at a particular track have the advantage.

"I'd be worried about the guys with experience on the track and experience in stock cars. But it's fun to race against different people. I'm looking forward to it."

Edwards, his crew chief Pierre Kuettel, a Westin, Ont., native, and Carpentier will do a media blitz on Wednesday. They have practice Thursday, then Edwards flies to Pocono for Nextel Cup practice Friday, zips back to Montreal for Saturday's race and heads back to Pocono on Sunday.