ESPN Nationwide Series

The biggest debut in the Nationwide Series this year has been reserved for Joey Logano, but the hype was all based on potential because the 18-year-old hadn't yet had a chance to prove he was every bit as good as his billing.

This weekend in Montreal, the hype surrounding Jacques Villeneuve will be every bit as intense. The former CART and Formula One champion will be driving a Nationwide Series car for the first time in a race. Sure, he ran seven Craftsman Truck Series races and made his Sprint Cup Series debut last year, but none of those races was on native soil.

And certainly not on a track -- Circuit Gilles Villeneuve -- named after his legendary father. Jacques Villeneuve, of course, was supposed to be deep into his rookie Sprint Cup season by now, but a lack of sponsorship ended those hopes after he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500.

Villeneuve, though, is not giving up his hopes of transitioning to NASCAR, and he put together a deal to run Braun Racing's No. 32 Toyota in the Napa Auto Parts 200. Where it will lead in the future is unknown, but a strong run at home is all that matters for now.

"The test [in Kershaw, S.C.] went really very well, almost better than I expected," Villeneuve said. "Driving the Nationwide cars on the street course was a big surprise to me. It's very different than the other cars I have driven. It was a great learning experience.

"The Braun Racing team was excellent to work with, and as the car became more familiar to me and we got into a rhythm as a team, it was a lot of fun. After the two days of testing we got the car set up so that we should be very competitive this weekend."

The 2.71-mile road course is a venue many of the drivers in Saturday's race drove on for only one week last season, but Villeneuve is quite familiar with it, including his final F1 race there in 2006 with BMW Sauber.

"Knowing the track as I do is obviously a big advantage, but I do worry about the Formula One habits that I have already formed," Villeneuve said. "My biggest worry is my brake lines. I will have to constantly remind myself not to use the Formula One brake markers that I am accustomed to."

With a number of fellow Canadians in the field, including Ron Fellows and Patrick Carpentier, Villeneuve expects it to be a festive event. He's just thankful he found the backing to be part of it.

"I am very grateful and happy to have the opportunity to drive for Braun Racing in Montreal. The people of Montreal and Canada love their racing, and this town is going to go crazy," he said. "It's super exciting for me to be here to race for the Canadian fans, and I hope that the setup we fine-tuned during testing will work for us in Montreal this weekend."

In his dreams, Villeneuve undoubtedly hopes to make a debut similar to Carpentier's a year ago. In that race, all Carpentier did was win the pole and finish second after a late-race altercation between Robby Gordon and Marcos Ambrose sent Kevin Harvick to Victory Lane.

Carpentier's eye-opening performance helped paved the way for him to join Gillett Evernham Motorsports full-time in the Sprint Cup Series this year. But this week, Bill Elliott will drive the No. 10 Cup car so Carpentier can focus on winning in Canada.

"It's amazing how much things can change in just a short time. A year ago we had just scraped enough money to race at Gilles Villeneuve Circuit," Carpentier said. "Now I'm blessed to be racing every week. We've come such a long way. I'm thrilled that things played out the way they did. Gillett Evernham Motorsports is a wonderful organization to be involved with. Each week they're fielding competitive race cars, and everything needed for success we have at our disposal.

"I've always wanted to race in NASCAR. It was a dream of mine that I never thought would become a reality. Now each week when I'm on pit road before the race and see all the fans, I still can't believe it."

A year from now, Villeneuve hopes to be voicing similar sentiments. But a solid finish will mean outrunning drivers such as Fellows, Boris Said and the NASCAR regulars who aren't too shabby turning right and left, either.

Of the Canadians in the field, Fellows may stand the best chance of winning because he'll be in JR Motorsports' No. 5 Chevrolet. And Fellows has far more experience in the heavier stock cars on road courses than Villeneuve or Carpentier.

In 12 road course starts in the Nationwide Series, Fellows has three wins, five top-5 finishes, six top-10s and two poles, and he has led 193 out of 891 laps completed (21.66 percent). Still, his last win was in 2001 at Watkins Glen, so he'd like to find his way back to the front.

"Road-course racing is what I do regularly with Corvette Racing, which is why it's relatively comfortable for me. Although the Nationwide Series cars are quite different than the Corvette C6-R, it's still road racing, and I have to adapt to the car and not the track," Fellows said. "I have tried to drive the NASCAR Chevys as smoothly as possible, making sure that the chassis is doing what I need it to do. And these races are not any more appealing than oval racing -- it's more about where I have had the opportunities."

Fellows has made the most of his opportunities in the past, as did Carpentier a year ago. Now it's Villeneuve's turn, and the eyes of his homeland will be on his No. 32 Camry all weekend.

Mark Ashenfelter is an associate editor at ESPN.