Montreal has seen its share of action in two seasons

The Nationwide Series races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the third time Sunday in the Napa Auto Parts 200, and if the previous two events are characteristic of what can happen on the 2.709-mile road course in Montreal, it should be an eventful and entertaining adventure.

Ron Fellows won last year's race with help from Mother Nature. Rain flooded the track and forced the race to be shortened from 74 laps to 48. Fellows, running in the top five, was on an alternate pit-stop strategy from leader Marcos Ambrose and several other cars and inherited the lead. Five laps later, rain returned for the second time and after two caution laps, NASCAR threw the checkered flag. Fellows became the first winner of a race that used rain tires and the first Canadian to win in Canada.

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"It was a wild, wild day with certainly the threat of rain, getting an opportunity to actually race the Nationwide cars in the rain," Fellows said. "Certainly, it was a special win for me being Canadian."

There wasn't any rain for the inaugural race in 2007. It featured a wacky and climatic conclusion with some good, old-fashioned NASCAR fender-banging.

Ambrose and Robby Gordon were in a ferocious battle for the lead in the closing laps. Gordon nudged ahead to move in front of Ambrose and Ambrose tapped Gordon to regain the lead. The caution, for a multicar incident, came out at the same time Ambrose was re-passing Gordon.

NASCAR ordered Gordon to drop back to 13th place, but he stayed directly behind Ambrose. On the restart with two laps to go, Gordon hit Ambrose and spun the Australian and stayed in front the rest of the way. But it was Kevin Harvick who took the checkered flag. NASCAR had quit counting Gordon's lap for the last restart.

Harvick and Gordon both did burnouts on the front straight, but the win belonged to Harvick.

"In my opinion, I won the race," Gordon said. "I was spun out during the yellow, but I completed all laps, yet NASCAR took it from me."

Ambrose had dominated both races, leading 37 of 75 laps in 2007 and 27 of 48 in 2008, but had only seventh- and third-place finishes, respectively, to show for it.

Think Ambrose might be a little hungry Sunday? He's won the Nationwide race the past two years at Watkins Glen (the series' other road course), and returns in the JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota.

"To be honest, I think the man to beat is going to be Mr. Ambrose," Fellows said.

Fellows should be formidable, too. He'll be attempting to win two consecutive at Montreal in JR Motorsports' Chevrolet. Fellows is one of the most successful so-called road-race ringers in NASCAR history with four victories in the Nationwide and two in the Truck Series. In 14 Nationwide starts, all on road courses, he has seven top-fives.

"We know we've got to be better than we were last year in the dry based on what we saw at Watkins Glen with the strength of the Toyotas and Carl Edwards in the Ford," Fellows said. "We have our work cut out for us."

Numbers: Montreal

In just two years, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has seen plenty of Nationwide Series drama.

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Kyle Busch will be driving in his first race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but he has a Nationwide victory at Mexico City last season and finished second to Ambrose three weeks ago at Watkins Glen.

There's also a strong contingent of Canadian road racers in the field, including 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier has finished second each of the past two years.

Three to watch

Boris Said, No. 09: Said is an experienced road-race wheelman, and he never can be counted out on these types of tracks. He finished 11th in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, and isn't afraid of muscling cars out of the way.

Marcos Ambrose, No. 47: Ambrose outfoxed Kyle Busch for that Nationwide win at the Glen. His confidence in NASCAR racing continues to grow, and that will continue to be very apparent Sunday.

Jacques Villeneuve, No. 32: This Montreal track is named after Villeneuve's dad, but we're not issuing this shout-out for nepotistic reasons. Jacques is a former Formula One champ and is in a pretty solid ride this weekend with Braun Racing, which has four career Nationwide wins.

Track chatter

Brendan Gaughan: "I really like road racing. I did a lot of it earlier in my career. I've never raced at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but I'm really looking forward to it. This track is one of the more well known from an international perspective, and it's cool to think about all the drivers that have raced there in the past. I'm going to run the Grand Am race [Saturday], just trying to get all the laps I can in preparation for [Sunday]."

Patrick Carpentier: "It's always fun. We seem to run well there, so hopefully we do the same thing this year. We tested with Jerry Baxter [crew chief] and the team, so we think we're ready. We're looking forward to it and there's going to be a few Cup guys coming over early because they don't have a race that weekend so that should be fun. It's been raining there every day for the last month, so hopefully we get a little bit of a break and it gets cleared up."