March 4

Rusty Wallace could walk down the Paseo de la Reforma without getting mobbed. Kevin Harvick could leave his Sharpie in his pocket.

But let Adrian Fernandez try to stroll down Mexico City’s main boulevard and it would be akin to Dale Earnhardt Junior trying walk through a shopping mall on a Saturday afternoon.

A lot of what the fans in Mexico will see this Sunday will be alien to them. In a country that loves open-wheel racing, full bodied stock cars are a rare sight and to have them racing around the 2.786 miles long Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course is something that has never been see here at all.

Adrian Fernandez

One element that won’t be unfamiliar to them however will be the driver on the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, Adrian Fernandez.

The 41-year-old Fernandez enjoys an almost demigod status largely due to his success in the CART and Indy Racing League series.

Fernandez won eight races during his CART career. His best season was 2000 when he finished second in points.

Last year, Fernandez moved to the IRL. After a slow start, he came on to win three of the last six races.

This year, it looks as if Fernandez will confine his duties in open wheel to team ownership. He has had trouble finding sponsorship for a second IRL car — his IRL car.

But for this weekend he’ll spend one race in a Busch car and slip into the role of ambassador for NASCAR.

"I feel like a kid again," he said. "For me to be able to race at home in front of my fans again is a dream come true."

"You can't deny that NASCAR, it's their best moment right now," Fernandez says. "Unfortunately, it's not that way with our racing right now."

Hendrick signed Fernandez earlier this year for a one-race deal. This race.

Hendrick general manager Marshall Carlson listed three reasons why Fernandez, a veteran open-wheel driver, was tapped for Sunday's road race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

The first two reasons are practical on a racing level: “He's a proven winner,” Carlson said, and “he's been on the course at Hermanos Rodriguez.”

The third reason is practical on a business/political level.

“He is the most popular sport figure in Mexico,” Carlson said.

How popular is most popular?

Plenty popular, says fellow countryman Michel Jourdain, who is racing in the Busch series full time this year.

“Adrian has been on top of the motor-sports world since 1992,” Jourdain said. “He is on the front page in Mexico all the time. Nobody does that except boxers and soccer stars.”

NASCAR cars are much heavier than Indy-style cars and drive quite differently. Fernandez will drive top equipment that might give him a chance to win.

"I like the challenge, and I'm up for it," Fernandez says

"This is a new chapter for NASCAR and Mexico," Fernandez said. "(Mexican fans) don't know much about NASCAR. In general, they know more about open-wheel racing. They know CART or now Champ Car and the IRL. So this is something new for them and everyone is excited; obviously (it's) something they will need to learn about it, but I am excited to help them make the transition faster."

Jourdain, 28, had two wins in nine Champ Car seasons, finishing third in the 2003 standings. His full-time deal with ppc Racing will make him the first Hispanic driver to run an entire Busch season.

Fernandez and countrymen Rafael Martinez, Mara Reyes, Jorge Goeters and Ruben Garcia Novoa are guaranteed spots in the field because their cars finished in the top 30 (with other drivers) in the 2004 owner points. The No. 5 Chevrolet Fernandez will drive is the same on Kyle Busch used to finish second last season. Jourdain will be among the 13 drivers who must qualify on speed.

Mexico has been part of NASCAR history since founder Bill France and legendary driver Curtis Turner competed in the Mexican Road Race in 1950. Now under the leadership of France's grandson, Brian, NASCAR is looking for the next untapped international market, particularly Mexico and Canada. France said NASCAR, which now has offices and broadcast agreements with television stations in both Canada and Mexico, is exploring how to "take better advantage of opportunities abroad."

"When we say that we don't mean that we're looking to take the Nextel Cup South or North," he said. "Obviously, domestically is full."

Felix Sabates, a partner in Chip Ganassi's Nextel Cup team and a major player in brokering the Mexico City deal, said he doubts a Cup race will come to Mexico, however.

"Because I think this Busch (race) is going to be so successful," he said, "if they sell 150,000 seats, that's all you can sell."

Nine Nextel Cup regulars, including Rusty Wallace, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick, will attempt to make the field.

For Sabates, a Cuban-American and Latino pioneer in NASCAR, the race represents both a potential validation of the Hispanic market and a major business opportunity.

Sabates claims he had long lobbied and was rebuffed by former CEO Bill France Jr. about racing in Mexico but found a more receptive audience in Brian France. Sabates' brother, Jose, helped rally financial support, including racing fan Carlos Slim Helu, deemed by Forbes magazine the richest man in Latin America in 2004; and government support, in president Vicente Fox. And he arranged junkets in 2003 and 2004 in which Felix Sabates, Brian France and chief operating officer George Pyne surveyed the city and course.

"They pretty much had an open mind when we went down there, and once they saw what was there, Holy c---," Sabates said.

"We went down there a few weeks ago and (Fox) showed up at the track to see what we were doing. I got a call (that) Fox wants to have dinner on Saturday night in Mexico City. You've got the president all pumped up behind it and one of the wealthiest families in the world, the Slim family; you have the makings of a very successful operation."

The Rev. Benito Velazco gives the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track in Mexico City his blessing. Language barrier? Rain tires? As is the case at every other NASCAR race, local fire and rescue workers will be responsible for cleaning up after accidents and attending to any injured drivers this weekend. This time around, however, a lot of those workers won't be able to speak English. NASCAR Busch Series director Joe Balash says officials have been working with local rescue workers for months and are prepared to handle any communication issues. Bilingual workers will be stationed out on the course and in the trackside building where NASCAR officials dispatch emergency vehicles by radio. There are plenty of unknowns going into Sunday's race — Mexican drivers with extensive road-racing experience but no NASCAR experience, Busch Series regulars who don't have much road-racing experience and a few Nextel Cup pros who do. There's also a possibility of rain in the forecast, meaning drivers might have to race in the rain using grooved tires. "It's been a while since we've used rain tires in an event," Balash says. Should it rain on Sunday, NASCAR officials would stop the race and allow teams to change to rain tires, mount red taillights and windshield wipers during pit stops

Let there be no doubt, NASCAR's incursion into Mexico is more about commerce than taking its traveling show to a new pool of race-crazy fans. If stock-car racing can find a place in Mexicans' open-wheel popularity, NASCAR and its teams stand to reap massive financial reward. Just one percent of NASCAR fans were Hispanic in 1995. The figure had grown to nine percent by 2002.

"We're developing auto racing south of the border," Brian France said. "We know that the Hispanic market is the fastest growing emerging market in the country. We also know with Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Chicago, that's where a lot of our fans are coming from, so we want to be relevant to our fans. One of the ways to do that is to be relevant to their country."

“This event,” France said, “provides our Busch series teams the opportunity to perform on an international stage. We look forward to providing this event for our growing Mexican fan base.”

Fernandez said that at this point, that base is relatively thin.

“It's a little bit new for Mexico,” he said. “They don't know much about NASCAR. They know open-wheel. But me, and Michel, should make the transition a little bit easier for them.”

Promoting a race in a Hispanic nation is already proving to be quite different than in the States.

At Thursday's news conference introducing some of the Mexican drivers recruited to race, the drivers were flanked by six edecanes (hostesses) wearing tight-fitting sponsor-logo bodysuits. That's in sharp contrast to NASCAR's buttoned-down officials, who do not allow women to wear open-toed shoes or sleeveless tops or bare their midriffs in the garage area.

A priest later blessed the track, sprinkling holy water on the pavement, some photographers — and, yes, the assembled hostesses.

Federico Alamán, director of motor sports for OCESA, the company organizing and promoting the race, expects an excited crowd Sunday — fans have never seen the "emotion, adrenaline and noise" of 43 cars rubbing fenders as the green flag falls. He predicts the race will draw more than 100,000 fans during the weekend and jump by 70% as word gets out next year.

Alaman, said 45,000 tickets already had been sold by Thursday.

"We really think that there is a lot of fan base out there," he said," noting that more than 20 million people live in the greater Mexico City area. "I think this is going to be like the starting of a totally new racing world in Mexico."

The race in Mexico will also be a bit new for many of the drivers in the field. Few have driven on the track. And if they were not in the series the last three years, they may not have driven on a road track in a Busch car, period.

Nextel Cup and Busch series veteran Jeff Burton has tested the course.

“It's completely flat,” he said. “No elevation. It's the flattest road course I've ever seen. I think it should be a good race to watch.”

Ron Hornaday Jr., driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc. took a first glance at the winding course and acted a bit confused.

"Which way does it go?" asked the veteran Busch series driver.

Since the Telcel MOTOROLA Mexico 200 is an inaugural event, settling on favored drivers is a difficult task. However, there is NASCAR Busch Series road course history to go by. Ron Fellows has three NASCAR Busch Series road course wins to his credit, all at Watkins Glen when the series previously raced there from 1991-2001.

Fellows won in 1998, and then took consecutive victories in 2000-01. Fellows has won two NASCAR Busch Series road course poles, both also at The Glen. David Green (1996) and Boris Said (1998) also claimed a pole at Watkins Glen, while Rusty Wallace captured a NASCAR Busch Series road course pole at Road Atlanta (1987).

Among the Mexican drivers entered, Rafael Martinez (No. 0 Davis Motorsports Chevrolet) is a three-time Mustang Series champion in Mexico, a series that races stock cars.

Carlos Contreras is a familiar name who has experience both the NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is one of the favorites to capture the 2005 Desafio Corona championship, the stock car series that was launched in Mexico in 2004.

Jorge Goeters who will team with Green for BREWCO Motorsports, has one title in the Mustang Series.

Mara Reyes, the only Mexican woman entered in the race, is a veteran of Mexico's Corona Challenge series, but stockers there have about half the horsepower of the Busch cars.

Friday was to be the first time she would sit in her newly built Busch entry for Jay Robinson Racing.

"I'm worried about what is going to happen tomorrow," she said. "The car is coming in new and we still have to go over all the details."

"These people like racing. And of course, they will get to pull for some Mexican drivers," Sabates said. "Adrian Fernandez told Jamie (McMurray), he said, "Jamie, there's gonna be 300,000 of us there. If one of you gringos touches one of the Mexicans' cars, it's gonna be hard.' He said, "When you see me coming, you better pull over.' "

"Whoever shows up tomorrow with a clear mind and just can study the racetrack and do their homework the fastest, that is going to be the whole thing right there," said Hornaday.