ESPN Nationwide Series

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Marcos Ambrose feels as if he's on the second week of a vacation as the Nationwide Series heads to Watkins Glen International for Saturday's Zippo 200. A champion of the Ford V8 Supercar Series, the Australian has a natural comfort zone when he's turning both right and left.

If not for a penalty for speeding onto pit road in the rain at Montreal, Ambrose might be heading to Watkins Glen with his first Nationwide Series win under his belt. Instead, he hopes to reach Victory Lane at the 11-turn, 2.45-mile facility that's hosted some of the world's best racers over the years dating back to its Formula One days.

"It's just a flowing track," Ambrose said. "It's got a lot of history to it. It's known as one of America's finest racetracks, as far as road racing goes. It's got a lot of character. The corners have good banking on most of them. The track is in a beautiful location in America. It's just a nice place to be.

"The fans, by the looks of it, they have a history of going there. They really know what they're doing when they get there and who they're following. Watkins Glen is a unique racetrack and the people go there to watch road racing, which is nice too."

Crew chief Gary Cogswell is bringing back the car that nearly won at Montreal, but he said the car is only a small part of the equation.

"You still have to stick to your basics, but when it comes to road racing, the most important ingredient is the driver," Cogswell said. "Marcos has an amazing ability to find a rhythm on a road course, and a lot of that comes with his comfort level."

The driver isn't making any promises, but he's looking forward to the weekend.

"I feel like I'm on a Mediterranean holiday," Ambrose said. "I feel the stress and strains of an oval track because I haven't quite mastered the trade. But here I feel comfortable in my surroundings. I know that if I do my job as I should that we should have a decent day."

A year ago, Kevin Harvick won both Montreal and Watkins Glen driving for Richard Childress Racing. This year, he's in the Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevy he co-owns with his wife, DeLana, and the goal is to finally get a win in his own car.

While Ambrose was just in a Nationwide Series car on a road course, a number of the Cup drivers skipped Montreal. That means drivers such as Harvick, Jeff Burton, who finished second here a year ago, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are trying to get up to speed in a hurry.

No matter how this weekend turns out, Harvick will always have special memories of last year's win.

"Winning at Watkins Glen was a major accomplishment in my career. We'd been able to win on all the different types of racetracks as we've gone through the years, but the road course thing, we always had this little cloud over us," Harvick said. "We have been in contention to win and always had things happen here and there.

"To finally do that was pretty satisfying. It's almost a sense of relief because you get so frustrated at places you know you're capable of winning and haven't."

Burton knows not running at Montreal might be a disadvantage in some respects, but feels being entered in the Cup race helps balance things out as he'll have additional track time at Watkins Glen.

"The road course specialists that will come in and run the same car two weekends in a row will be hard to handle, but I should be able to make that up with the amount of stock car experience I have," said Burton, who will also have to adapt to how the Nationwide Series cars run at Watkins Glen with the tapered spacer reducing horsepower from a year ago. "With the way things are today with the low horsepower, it has a lot to do with acceleration.

"Being able to really get in the gas early in the corners, drive in the corners deep, get the car to turn and start accelerating as quickly as you can is the key to road course racing. The more horsepower you pull out, the more important it is to get through the corners fast. The sooner you can get on the gas and the percentage of time you are in the throttle is very important when you have low horsepower. So to me, it's all about being able to be in the throttle for a long period of time."

Of the Nationwide Series regulars, Steve Wallace is one of just two who has posted top-10 finishes at both Mexico City and Montreal.

"I'm looking forward to Watkins Glen this weekend. We've run pretty well so far on road courses this year," Wallace said. "It's not that I'm a good road racer, I promise you that, but I try to have fun driving the road courses.

"A lot of the Nationwide Series guys dread road racing and that attitude shows in the way they run. I just try to have a good time road racing and learn all I can from guys like my teammate [Max Papis]. Our team has a little bit of momentum going right now, so hopefully that will carry over to this weekend."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won a Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen, but that's not why he's in the JR Motorsports No. 5 entry this time around. For him, it's all about being better prepared for Sunday.

"We don't do that much road course racing, and we rarely like to test road courses. Running the Nationwide car is really the best way to get acclimated with the track and get back up to speed," Earnhardt Jr. said. "When you just run the Cup car all weekend like we do at Sonoma, you spend the first day just learning the track again -- at least I do.

"I feel like sometimes that puts me a little bit behind the eight ball. So I thought when they allowed me to pick and choose a couple races in the Nationwide Series, that would be a good reason to run Watkins Glen. I would be able to go in there and get a couple hours on the racetrack before I got in my Cup car. I thought maybe I could help my Cup guys by running better laps and getting better feedback to them for the car. It should be fun."

Mark Ashenfelter is an associate editor at ESPN.