MONTREAL -- The third leg of Canada's Triple Crown this weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve figures to bring out as much emotion as it will paying customers.

Because of tobacco legislation, Sunday's Molson Indy Montreal will be the last time Player's is allowed to fly its colors in the homeland after a 42-year run of supporting motorsports.

Toronto native Paul Tracy, whose six victories have him atop the Champ Car point standings by 20 points, will be trying to sweep the three races in his country for the Player's/Forsythe team. Quebec's Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani, who both drove for Player's last season (Carpentier is still with the team) were greeted like gods in CART's debut here a year ago and helped draw nearly 180,000 people in three days.

Those tobacco laws have forced Formula One to remove the Canadian Grand Prix from next year's schedule so this could well be the last major race on Montreal's famous 2.7-mile road course if CART cannot overcome the financial troubles it faces in 2004.

"It's a dark day for motorsports and Canada in general when Player's is forced out," said Tracy, who won Toronto and Vancouver and is gunning for his first CART championship in 13 years.

"I can't think of a better way to salute Player's last race in Canada than to sweep and have Player's run 1-2 like we did at Mid-Ohio."

Carpentier, runner-up at Mid-Ohio, concurred with his teammate.

"It's very sad to think about what's happening to Player's and the Canadian Grand Prix," said Carpentier, who won the 1996 Toyota Atlantic title for Player's before joining its CART program in 1998.

	Tracy has already won at Vancouver and Toronto this season.

"Player's has supported racing for over 40 years and helped the Canadian economy so much. And the grand prix is such a big event for Montreal. I'm sure the fans will be very supportive this weekend."

Running on the same track as F1 was a first for CART here last year and the response showed why Canada is CART's favorite stop.

"I know how thrilled Paul was to win in front of his hometown last month at Toronto and I'd really like to be able to do the same thing," said Carpentier, who won earlier this season at Laguna Seca. "I still get shivers when I think about the great response from the fans in Montreal last year. It was so disappointing we couldn't finish because I'd been in second at one point.

"Winning this final Canadian race would be a fantastic way to reward the fans and Player's for the support they have given me over the years. I'm coming to Montreal with the same attitude that I had in Mid-Ohio at the last race.

"I guess you could say it's an all or nothing approach, but there are six races left and I want to do everything I can to get some wins, rather than be concerned more about collecting some points."

Tagliani, another product of the Player's system who was farmed out to Paul Gentillozzi's new team this year, is trying to keep his emotions in check.

"I want to do well and make the people of Montreal proud, but I want to be on the podium every weekend," said Tags, who's already scored three podiums this year. "It's an honor to represent Montreal in the series and I'm trying not to be affected by home crowd pressure.

"I treat all races equally importantly because we need more points to back up our hard work and the speed that Rocketsports has every weekend. I plan to stay focused on the race and do my best.

"But I can admit that I really want to please the people of Montreal and give them something to celebrate."

Speaking of celebrations, Jimmy Vasser will be starting his 200th CART race of his 12-year career.

	“	I can't think of a better way to salute Player's last race in Canada than to sweep and have Player's run 1-2 like we did at Mid-Ohio. ”
		— Paul Tracy

"I thought when I started, you don't think you're going to race that many races," said the 1996 CART champ. "When I first started, my first few years in Champ Car, I thought, man, if I could have a 10-year career, that would be fantastic. After I achieved that, I thought, you know, didn't really think about the numbers so much.

"But I guess that's a cool thing."

The 37-year-old veteran and his 22-year-old teammate, Ryan Hunter-Reay, are coming off their best weekend of 2004 for the new American Spirit Johansson Racing team. Hunter-Reay finished third and Vasser charged from 13th to fourth before a late spin.

"I think that was a booster for the team. It's going to be interesting to see if that momentum gain from Mid-Ohio is something that the team can feed off of. You know, sometimes they can, and sometimes they can't.

"I mean, we still have the Reynard chassis, which is, you know, pretty much a disadvantage across the board. And we're still working some things out. Unfortunately, I got some problems on my side of the engineering because Ed Nathman left the team late last week. I'm trying to coax him back."

The 14th of 19 races will be guaranteed to sport a couple of firsts because defending race winner Dario Franchitti is in the IRL while defending pole-sitter Cristiano da Matta has moved on to F1.

Robin Miller covers open wheel racing for ESPN and ESPN.com