This article focuses on the number of Canadians who are fans of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Nascar). Mucker Chambers from Saint John, N.B., made the 12-hour pilgrimage to the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. With the start of the race less than 12 hours away, there didn't seem much point in sleeping. Up went their Canadian flag. It would be "awesome" if NASCAR came to Canada, Chambers says. "I mean these guys take our hockey players, right? Why not bring the racing to us?" A lot of Canadian NASCAR fans have the same thing on their minds, wondering when the continent's premier stock-car racers will head north. Because right now NASCAR, firing on all cylinders, wants to grow the Canadian market. Landing a Nextel Cup event, NASCAR's premier series, is a long shot. But the Busch Series, the No. 2 circuit in the U.S., is looking a lot more promising. NASCAR oversees three national series: Nextel, Busch and another called Craftsman, for trucks. In March, Busch staged a race in Mexico City, the first NASCAR-sanctioned contest outside the United States that counted toward its driver championship. "I don't know why the hell we don't race in Canada," says Rusty Wallace, the veteran Nextel driver for the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. "We're already at Michigan International Speedway." So, in Canada by when? "Oh boy," sighs Robbie Weiss, NASCAR's Los Angeles–based managing director of international operations. "Hard to say. You'd like to think by 2007." NASCAR's Nextel Cup calendar is packed, though, and Canada's window of opportunity, because of the weather, is tight: only June, July and August. In Canada, NASCAR is the No. 1 televised motorsport. This year's Daytona 500, the Super Bowl of stock-car racing, drew an average of 506,000 viewers per minute on The Sports Network, more than double the 240,000 who watched when TSN last televised the contest two years ago.