Montoya Retains Open Wheel Profile in NASCAR

From correspondent John Griffin:

"Professional race car driver Juan Pablo Montoya trades his McLaren MP4-21 for a Dodge Charger as he joins ranks with the increasingly popular North American professional stock car series, NASCAR. With the switch to the heavier Cup car @ roughly 3200 lbs., J.P. will long for the wicked acceleration and dead braking power of the agile open-wheeler, weighing in at about 1320 lbs. But as he proved this weekend in Sonoma, California, home of Infineon Raceway, a 3200 lb car boasting 750 horsepower in the hands of an Indy 500 champion and former F1 driver may have it's upside, especially at a road course."

Juan Pablo Montoya isn't the first open wheeler to attempt the jump to full time NASCAR driver. Several racing icons and hall of famers have proven their ability in any type of car, although all agree the ultimate in a driver's test is the fastest most agile car of all, the "formula" type of car: the open wheeler.

Back in the day, before NASCAR was the 300 lb. gorilla in the room it is now, the best drivers competed in the glimmering jewels of the motorsports world as they do now too: AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti and others began their careers in open wheel, AJ on dirt in the modifieds, Mario in sportscars and formula cars. Then when their careers seemed to plateau, the got into the taxi cabs and had success, both drivers I mentioned are unique that they are the only ones to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans. At LeMans, Mario with Ferarri, AJ with the Ford GT 40.

In modern times, several top notch NASCAR drivers began their careers in Indy cars. Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon both began in karts then went to midgets. Having raced the karts gives the equivelant to the dynamic of a formula car: stiff chassis responding to left and right steering input.
Both drivers have garnered considerable success with Rusty retiring in 2005 after a storied career, and Jeff Gordon still winning races and competing for championships to go with his previous four.

Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon are two top notch NASCAR drivers who were in high demand to drive Indy 500 entries in recent years, while still maintaining a full season of Winston/Nextel Cup starts. The Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 are usually run on the same day and these two drivers' top notch teams went to extreme lengths to allow their drivers to compete in the "Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports" then fly via chartered jet from Indianapolis to Charlotte, NC to take the start of the Cup race.

Several years ago, Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya participated in an experimental show idea put on by Speed Channel. "Tradin' Paint" began life as two driver's exchanging cars to see how they perform in the other's ride. Jeff, a former karter and open wheeler in his youth took Montoya's Williams BMW powered F 1 car out on the Indianapolis Formula 1 track while Juan Pablo took Gordon's Chevy Monte Carlo onto the same track. In the general scheme, it was agreed the Montoya actually outperformed Gordon in his car, and is now an indicator that JPM might be able to operate this bulky, top-heavy, won't freakin' stop TAXICAB!

2006 and 07 were breakout years for open wheel drivers. Mostly because they seemed to want to "break out" of IRL and Champ Car drives! It was a disgusting display of, frankly, greed. AJ Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., Montoya, all seemed to want to try to duplicate the cross-over manouver with success that road course specialists occasionally hired by NASCAR teams to drive their cars on the road course events on the calendar: Watkins Glen, Infineon and in the Busch Series, Mexico City. Drivers like Robby and Jeff Gordon (no relation), Boris Said, Scott Pruett and other full time drivers adept at road courses like Tony Stewart all came from a roadrace if not actual open wheel backgrounds. Of those drivers, only Boris Said is making a go of starting a full time race team in Cup, Robby Jeff and Tony already have full time rides while Robby is an owner/driver.

And while Boris and Robby struggle to remain in the field as newly formerd teams, Allmendinger, Hornish and Montoya drive for second tier teams and are struggling to produce results. Montoya is by far the more successful of these taxicab rookies with a road course win in Mexico and Infineon, and the highest point total of the drivers on his TexacoHavoline, Ganassi/Sabates Dodge Team.
Montoya knows that it is on the ovals that he needs to produce results to truly make his mark in the history books alongside other greats that have attempted the same feat.

By the way, JPM has won in Formula 1, 24 Hours of LeMans, as well as an Indianapolis 500 and a Champ Car Championship. Each year, Juan Pablo coordinates a charitible kart event in his home country of Columbia featuring other elite open wheel drivers such as Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Vitor Meira and Felipe Massa.

History will judge him as an elite driver regardless of whether he can trade paint with the rednecks in Cup.

July 8, 2007

Motorsports Ranch Cresson, West of Ft. Worth, Tx
3.1 mile permanent road course

SWRA rolled into MSR Cresson this past weekend for the 4th of 7 race meetings. Because of financial tribulations I wasn't sure I'd even make the race, so I skipped Friday practice and came up on Sunday morning hoping to practice before the midday race. It didn't happen, I arrived after 8 and before I was ready to go out, practice was already over and the first heat races began.

There was rain in the area and before the second race could begin, the rain came and sent the field of racers back into the tech area under the pavilion canopy for shelter. After 20 minutes or so the rain quit and people were allowed to go on-track in their street cars to take laps and help clear the track of standing water. Taking advantage of this, I made several laps around the track in my pickup truck. It was a very lucky happenstance, as I'd never been to the track before and was looking at having to race without ever having had a chance to look it over turn by turn. But here we were, Frank and I, cruising easily around the roadcourse in my pickup, labeling turns and complex corners (multiple apexes, off-camber turns and such) when we came up to the top of the track near the clubhouse on our first lap out. I had sped up slightly when people came up behind me and though I entered the last turn of the "rattlesnake" section I was not applying the throttle at all, indeed my foot was off the accellerator completely. Even though, the rear end of the truck broke loose and began to come around on the left. I didn't hit the brakes, just turned the wheel into the skid but it was to no effect: the truck spun around and came to rest along the inside of the track, luckily still on the pavement and not out onto the soft dirt. Now this was a wet, slippery track!

After twenty minutes of so of making laps, we were cleared off the track and the interrupted class got the green flag again. The rain stayed away but just when my class was in pre-grid, word came down that the rain was 30 minutes away. Our race was thirty minutes long, but it took us several minutes more to start.

Right from the start I had my hands full with a skiddish kart: for some stupid reason, I had put "tire-black" onto the tires earlier in the week which killed any grip the tires might have. It took the better part of the first lap to scrub it all off. By then the pack had disappeared completely. I wasn't worried, it was part of my adjusted expectations that since I had never been on-track with my kart and had no idea how to drive it, I was going to take it easy and just make sure I finished. Once the slip-agent had left my tires and I began to recieve some grip, I began taking the turns faster and faster. After six laps I was turning fast laps and had begun to catch the slower karts in the field. Out of the seven that started, I had passed two and was now in fifth place. Only a few short laps later there was rain smacking into my wind visor and I came out of the throttle, slowing down my entry and exit speeds to ensure there would be no DNF(did-not-finish= zero points awarded), due to a spin-out and a motor that died. Twice my motor almost died because of the diminished rpm's I was giving it, but I kept it running and passed the start finish line for the last time: the rain began to really fall hard when I got to turn 1 and caution flags were out at every corner. So were the off-track competitors. I passed two more karts that had gone off on that last lap, kept it running and finished in 3rd place.

As you know, I was tied for second place in the points standing coming into this race which was a large part of why I strived to make this race and salvage any points I could. Jamey Brown finished first, a national kart competitor and a fast guy and Kari Summers finished second. This would make the third time I finished behind Kari this year, but it gave me the points lead for the season with 4 of 7 races complete.

MSR Cresson is a huge track with lots of high speed cornering and massive elevational changes. I really had a great time and I look forward to the next race in Hallet, Oklahoma at the end of August, another track I have never raced at. But that shouldn't matter, with Friday practice I should be a force to contend with and one of two with a chance to win the championship.

-Katykarter